Borderlands:God's Chess Board
by BlitzKraig
Summary: A new Vault, Six new vault hunters, a new enemy, and the last story of Pandora. See what happens on God's chessboard when it's our turn to move. Join me on an adventure of gun and blade, and see just why S&S disappeared all those years ago.
1. Welcome To The Board

(A/N: God I am so nervous about this. To start this off this is not my first fanfiction by any means it is however the first fanfiction that I've written that someone other than me will see (god willing). This is my thoughts on what borderlands three should be like. But not in terms of mechanics like all the gamming sites are griping about, no this is about the story. This story features six new vault hunters as is tradition. My sister and I made them. Good luck finding out who made what. Now with nothing further in our way. A story of what happens on God's chess board when it's our move. P.s I don't know how to make those lines that separate the author's note from the rest of the story so bear with me here)

Disclaimer: I do not wish to be sued and I don't own anything relevant to Borderlands.

 **Chapter 1: welcome to the board**

So you came for another story? One of adventure, danger, and the occasional laugh or two? Then you have come to the right man, but you have to buy something after alright? Good. But I am at the bottom of my barrel I am sorry but this is the last story to take place on Pandora, and now we begin. It all started many years ago with the tale of two brothers. These brother's names were Aeron and Maximum Sae. They were legends on the battlefield, and when being soldiers didn't pump out enough cash they became mercenaries. They became riddled with greed. To fuel there never ending desire for money they became arms dealers and founded the S&S munition corporation. Gunslingers from all four corners came to buy the brother's guns which could hold more bullets than any others. But these guns did not come from nowhere. Money does more to a man than meets the eye. To make these guns the two brothers dug their fingers into the underworld of the galaxy. Kidnapping, black market children, drug dealing, murder. These were all means used by the two brothers to make a name a name for themselves, to make their fortune. Evil made up every brick of this corporation. I know what else is new right? They went on unhindered until two heroes, a husband and wife uncovered all of their evil doings. The two brothers and anyone who worked under them now faced charges for crimes against humanity. In an attempt to escape S&S issued a full recall and went underground, but not before tying up a few lose ends. As a reward for their noble deeds the two journalists who had exposed S&S were murdered in their own home, leaving their daughter Violette to seek revenge.

Two groups of two, one of men and one of women, both holding radios. Walk down two paths that are quickly converging into one road; the words "I just became a member of a club known as the bumbling fools" echoes in the distance accompanied by the beat of music. On the left path walked the two men. A six foot five inch tall, muscled behemoth wearing an armored chest plate, swords across his back, a cloak missing g its sides (so almost a cloak, but not really), with a red cross in the center and white background, a headband of similar design, an iron cross necklace, short blonde hair ,blue eyes, and scars all up and down his arms. Walking next to him, and holding the radio was a very tanned, sleek man with black hair in a pony tail that went to just below his shoulder blades no shirt leather bands on his wrists and neck with short thin chains hanging from them, denim blue jeans a cigarette in his mouth, a whip at his side, dark black eyes, scars on his back, and wicked grin on his face. Walking on the right path were the two women. A woman about five feet two inches tall wearing a heart stamped t-shirt, torn blue jeans, brown hair, green eyes, boots, a red backpack complete with a shotgun holster. The woman walking beside her held their radio, wore half of a psycho mask, short dirty blond hair, one blue eye showing on the left side of her face, A black leather jacket with brown stripes on the right upper arm, a blue t-shirt underneath with the picture of a fist stamped onto it, two seemingly modified buzz-axes rested on her back, which matched the bonneted ornery law pistol at her side, and blue all-star sneakers.

The two groups met in the middle as the sound coming from their radios synchronized. "Botching the game and the best things in life are the motto and the rules "With a few nods and an exchange of handshakes the four continued down the now singular path. The Dahl transport station lied straight ahead. Four bandit technicals rolled over the hills each carrying six bandits. "But if you can open up your heart and hear me out just for tonight" The bigger man's excalibastard and smaller man's cat'o nine tails rail guns pierce the two of the vehicles rendering them useless" baby I got something to prove to you, gotta show you I can do it right. "The shorter woman pulls out a small wireless controller as two surveyors, a pair of red clawed robotic arms, and a robotic jaguar digistuct into existence and destroys the third vehicle. The woman wearing the half mask drew the buzz-axes off her back and races the last vehicle to a stalemate before jumping into the cab and decapitating the driver then jumping out of the speeding vehicle leaving the passengers still going in circles. "Get out! Don't wanna see you agaaaiiin." The music continues as the shorter man lip-syncs, not noticing when a bandit comes up to him until he decked him in the face pushing him towards another bandit who lands another hit, sending him to a third bandit who point black shoots him in the chest with a shotgun which cut all the way through his shield. He steadies himself in the middle of the triangle and focuses on the pain releasing a circular wave of energy that goes for ten feet encompassing four bandits who all fell over dead immediately afterward.

SMOKEY AS THE SADIST.

"Maybe we can still be friends" the shorter woman sung as she mows down a wave of nomads with her Bane.

Violette as the engineer

"I know that I'm going to screw up in the end" The masked woman mimics the music with axes in hand as she dashes from bandit to bandit each time ending in a decapitation, meeting the eruptions of blood with a crazed grin.

 _SaPhYRe As ThE mAnIaC_

"But that's okay because I'm your average man" sounds the radio as the behemoth of a man lip-syncs. A bandit puts his hand on the behemoth's shoulder. A red aura covers the surface of his skin as the bandit's hand is instantaneously severed at the wrist. The bandit reels back staring at his recently amputated hand before the man grabs his head which is promptly sliced clean through. He rips his swords from their place on his back and charges deeper into battle.

 **CHURCH AS THE SWORDSMAN**

The four look around at their handiwork having reached the re-purposed Hyperion train stop. Just as the trumpet solo at the end of the song is finishing up the Dahl land transport tram arrives and the doors slide open. They exchange another sent of nods and fist bump between Church and Saphyre As the doors closed behind them.

(A/N: There you have it . I'll be responding to comments in future chapters and will be open to suggestions. Some future chapters will be insanely short and in those cases Ill post multiple chapters at one time. Sorry if there's something about my writing that you don't like. See you guys later.)


	2. Setting Up Your Pieces

(A/N: Hello again my faithful zero readers it seems. I know you might be thinking what the hell that last chapter was. The answer being it was the intro. I attempted to do it in the same style that the game makers did. This chapter is when the characters start to get fleshed out. Now this isn't just about my oc's it's also about the pre-existing characters just like in borderlands 2. I am an equal opportunist. Like I said I am taking suggestions and if there were any I would also be responding to reviews right now. Oh well here's my story.)

 **Chapter 2: setting up your pieces**

The train screeched to a halt at the Sanctuary station. The doors slid open. Many people walked out, but only four stood out amongst the uniforms and helmets of the crimson raiders. Violette, Church, Saphyre, and Smokey walked further into the station taking in the sight of Sanctuary or Grounded Sanctuary as some called it, as it was no longer floating in the sky. After the fall of handsome Jack and the departure of Helios the old Dahl mining ship had landed in the highlands outwash near Overlook. No one in the group noticed the Dahl soldier that had walked up to them during their admiration.

"Excuse me. Are you blokes the ones that answered the ads? "the blonde haired, dark skinned soldier spoke in a thick Australian accent.

"That's right" quickly replied Smokey. The soldier then stood at attention.

"If you would please come with me, the commander wants to see you immediately," the soldier explained.

"Lead the way" Church responded calmly. The four followed the low-ranking Dahl soldier through the unfamiliar city. A few buildings had the Dahl logo printed across them.

"Dahl sure has made themselves at home" Violette commented not showing feelings going one way or the other.

"BECOME THE SKELETON TAKE OVER THE BODY!" Saphyre insanely exclaimed. Though everything she said was an exclamation. The soldier seemed unsettled by the maniac's comment.

"Dahl has nothing to gain from taking over the Raiders. Even if what that was the case our commander would not take that order. We just have a common goal for now. S&S is a thorn in everyone's side" said the Australian man with all the conviction in the world.

"WE'LL SEE THE BLOOD WHEN THE FOG CLEARS!"

"Yes I guess we will." The soldier responded continuing to interpret the insane woman's rambling. They came up on the raider's HQ; Walking past , up the stairs and up the stairs, and into the map room which was already filled with eleven other vault hunters. As they walked in they took in the extraordinary people before them. Zero stood in a corner his arms crossed, Salvador sat next to Krieg seeming to be amused by the mad man's profane and graphic babbling, Mordecai leaned on the railing of the balcony taking drinks out of a bottle of whisky, Gaige stood near Zero trying to see how far she could get before the intimidating assassin moved to another corner, Brick stood on the balcony next to Mordecai preferring not to hit his head on the ceiling every two steps he took, Maya sat on the other side of Krieg translating his intentions to make sure no one in the room felt like they were about to have their guts ripped out and shown to them as his speech patterns sometimes had that effect on people, Claptrap simply wheeled around the room talking to whoever would listen, Athena stood in the corner opposite to Zero with her usual indifferent demeanor about her, Axton stood on the left end of the holo-table, on the right side stood a woman about five feet seven inches tall with black hair and uniformed in a typical Dahl uniform. Tension seemed to fill the air between them, and Lilith stood between then at the table. The three appeared to be deep in conversation about something when the soldier interrupted them.

"Excuse me ma'am" the soldier spoke at attention and in a nervous tone.

"What?" She asked in a calm yet solemn tone.

"The new vault hunters are here" The woman looked up from the map on table to the four newcomers

"So it would seem. Hello I am commander Lyme."

"Named from reputation" Axton quipped. She showed an annoyed look to the commando before moving on.

"Welcome to Pandora God's little chess board." She continued theatrically

"Tone it down Chicca this ain't no movie" Salvador commented earning a few laughs from various occupants of the room Smokey included. After Church elbowed him in the ribs Lilth stepped forth.

"Look this is the deal. As you probably already knew a few years back we found out that S&S weren't exactly on the up and up. What those reporters found out must've been bad because almost all of their guns and every member of their personnel disappeared practically overnight." Lilith explained.

"Well they're back and badder than ever" Axton took over." Six months ago S&S resurfaced, and their first move was to attack us and steal the vault key from a couple of years ago. This means that now not only do they have the means to open a vault but they also have a map of every vault in the galaxy."

"Can't let them all have all the fun!" Brick bellowed from the balcony.

"Mierda! Brick stop shouting at the top of your lungs. Mordecai yelled while holding his head.

"Getting back on track" Maya trailed "It takes two hundred years for the vault key to recharge naturally, but it has been established that there are means of artificially charging it." She looked around the room for approval before turning back to the new vault hunters "It's incredibly unlikely that they have another siren to help them, but they wouldn't take the key if they didn't have a means of using it right?"

"What we're trying to say is that this isn't going to be easy matter of fact a whole lot of people are going to die. Are you with us?" Commander Lyme asked theatrically before noticing wide smiles.

"Hell yeah!" they shouted as if on cue.

"Sounds familiar," Lilith commented looking to Mordicai and Brick as she did so. "It's okay you can come out now," she spoke aloud into the room. Three of the four new comers gave her a sceptic look, but it quickly disappeared when a multicolored alien looking creature faded out of invisibility in front of them. They all draw their guns, unsure of just what THE HELL THIS THING WAS!

"Lower your weapons! She's on our side!" demanded Lilith.

"And how the hell are we supposed to know that?!" retorted Smokey switching the safety off on his rail gun.

Silence filled the room while Lilith tried to figure out an explanation.

"I say we shoot it" a calm voice emanated from Violett's shotgun.

"Now's not the time Fourty," Violett complained through gritted teeth.

"Shoot it! Shoot it in the face! Blow through my magazine!" yelled Baine.

She rolled her eyes and shouted," Shut up Baine!"

"Stop," Athena said solemnly, but not quite annoyed. "I can speak on her behalf. She saved my life on more than one occasion."

"I mean you no harm," a calm voice spoke, but it was different. It had an echo. It was in their heads. Violett felt a twinge in her stomach. She lowers her weapon. Church quickly follows suit. Smokey reluctantly holsters his cat'o nine tails rail gun. Sapphire stopped pointing her revolver at the creature, but continued to spin it around on her finger.

"Please allow me to explain," echoed the voice.

(A/N: Another chapter done, another day of having no reviews .Please if you're reading this leave a review because I need to know that I'm not doing this for nothing. I already have this whole thing written for myself to enjoy so if nobody else is enjoying it I might as well stop. I'll go to chapter four and if I still don't have at least one review that's not from myself I'm stopping.)


	3. Strategy Is For Losers

(A/N: Hey guys just so you know and if I didn't make it clear in the last chapter the creature was the alien in the pre-sequel. I will now respond to comments and followers.

The survivor and the fighter: Thank you, I hope I can keep on entertaining you that's all I live for.

St4te of Gr4ce: Thanks. I gave Violette all three talking guns in the game, 1340, Bane, and Morningstar.

Telladosteven: Thanks for the support

Garfield413: Remember you're one third of why I'm doing this in the first place

 **Chapter 3: strategy is for losers**

The creature pointed to a spot on the map making a mark in purple, "This is the last vault on Pandora, The vault of dynasties. It contains the rest of my kind."

"The rest of your kind? What do you mean?" Church asked.

"The remainder of the Eridian race," Responded the creature. Their eyes went wide. Smokey dropped his lighter before he could light the cigarette in his mouth

"My reaction exactly," An eccentric voice interjected behind them. The four turned around to face the doctor as she continued, "Well mine may have been a bit more extreme," finished, finding a place for herself in the map room

"Wait hold on! Why are you guys trapped in a vault in the first place?" Inquired Violette who was having trouble with the situation entirely.

"When we were forced into the vault is the point in time when your kind thought that we had died out. We were at war with another race. They won, killed gratuitous amounts of us, and locked what remained in the vault of our own creation."

"Why didn't you open it yourself?" Asked Smokey.

"Before they left the opposing face programmed the phase system to not recognize Eridian DNA in case they missed one of us at the time they knew of no other species that would wish to free my people. So here I waited until your kind came and from there I formed my plan which is now coming into its final stage."

"Who were 'they'?" asked the swordsman.

"That's irrelevant. I watched them die out myself thousands of years ago," answered the Eridian. Church hardly seemed satisfied with this answer.

"Well why didn't you tell anyone about this beforehand?" Asked Violette

"That would have been detrimental to my overall plan."

"Okay. So what's the plan then?" The engineer softly demanded. The Eridian took some time to answer this question.

"We..Uh…we really don't have one," Axton answered for the extra-terrestrial.

"We don't have enough information to formulate a secure plan," Added Athena.

"So we said screw it we'll just keep on killing them until we get a lead," Said the manic mechromancer.

"For the last couple of months we've been focusing our resources on driving S&S out of their control points. We've already cleansed old haven, Fyrestone, Hero's pass, and the Hyperion settlement in thousand cuts. We did it but it wasn't easy and it gets harder each time we need help," Lyme trailed.

"And that's where you guys come in," Another voice chimed from the entry way. They turned their heads to see two more women one with Brown hair and one with blond hair. "My home town's next on the list, Hollow Point, "She explained while walking around the table "Hi I'm Fionna I'm tagging along for this one," She greeted as the blond one took her place next to Athena

"Where are Rhys and Sasha?" Asked the gladiatrix.

"They were still needed back at the vault."

"Alright," Lyme said calling everyone's attention back to herself. "Did we get everything out of the way does anyone have anything else to say or explain?" No one else spoke up. "Good .Now I don't think that I need to explain why all of this Eridian business is on a need to know basis. All of that stays in this room, got that?"

"Um does that mean that I was supposed to leave?" An unsure thick accented voice spoke forcing everyone to realize that the soldier who had escorted the vault hunter to HQ was still standing there in the corner by the entrance to the map room. Lyme's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as she approached the intimidated soldier.

"State your name and rank, soldier," Demanded the commander. In a panic he assumed the attention position.

"Spades comma Ace, Specialist," He spurted.

"What's your M.O.S?"

"Sniping ,"Ace responded, fearing for his life. Lyme seemed to contemplate this for a moment.

"Hm..Hey you guys don 't mind another voice chatting away on your echo's do you?"

"No," Violette answered, not entirely sure of what was going on at the moment. Like that was anything new tonight.

"Works for me, I tell you what spades I'm going to let you live, but from now on you have to snipe for the vault hunters."

"Yes ma'am!" the foreigner responded almost immediately as if his life depended on it and judging from what his C.O had said earlier it did.

"Good. Welcome to the team, and since this is sort of an off the books operation you won't have to worry about rank for a little while. The assault will be tomorrow night at two a' clock in the morning meet me at the tarmac then," She starts to leave before stopping herself, "Hey Ace show the new guys to the barracks will you?"

"Uh sure," Ace's tone spoke of complete bewilderment.

"Thanks see you guys later," With a pat on his shoulder she walked out the door.

"What the hell just happened?" The Australian asked exasperatedly finally letting his mussels relax.

"Sounds like you just got promoted amigo," answered the trigger happy dwarf, "Time to celebrate Pandilla!" He exclaimed happily.

"Best damn idea I heard since I got here, count me in," Smokey said.

"Me too," Mordecai spoke.

"You buying?" The hungry fisted giant bellowed.

"Not for you, Brick. You weigh eight hundred pounds and I don't think I know a good enough lawyer to claim bankruptcy."

"I'd like to come too if you don't mind, "Church asked

"Of course!" Salvador continued to speak excitedly.

"Then I'm coming too," Beamed Violette, "You coming, Saphyre?"

"LET'S GET DIZZY!"

(A/N: Boom fifth vault hunter .I already have an idea for a sixth but I will be taking suggestions on who you think the last vault hunter should be. He won't be showing up until after the assault on Hollow point so there is no need to rush. PUCH THAT REVIEW BUTTON IN THE FACE LIKE A BOSS AND I WILL SEE ALL YOU DUDES IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!)


	4. Drunken Chess

Disclaimer: I do not own borderlands if I did this wouldn't be fanfiction.

(A/N: I don't really have anything to say today. I've been meaning to say that if you like RvB Read shut up and dance with me by Garfield413. She's really talented, Writes hilarious dialog, and her confidence is what inspired me to start posting my work online. Now for the comments.

The survivor and the fighter: Thank you for the idea, but I can't make the sixth guy one of the tales of the borderlands characters. Rhys, Sasha, Vaughn, Gortys, and loader bot are already a group of six and are already a part of the alliance, they're just busy doing something else right now .They need to protect the (spoilers)so that(spoilers)can't (spoilers) with the (spoilers).

Telladossteven: It's S&S I told you that already, but you'll see where they get their edge a bit later.

Good? Good. Here we go.)

 **Chapter 4: Drunken Chess**

The vault hunters filled the seats of Moxxi's pub except for Zero and Athena who shared a dislike for loud and crowded places. Gaige, Violette, and Maya were already pretty drunk. Neither of them have had a very big chance to build up their resistances to alcohol's effects. It was impossible to tell if Saphyre or Krieg were being affected by the alcohol at all. Axton, Church, Salvador, Smokey, and Lilith, were all buzzed, drunk enough to make that joke you usually wouldn't but not drunk enough to wake up next to Shank the next morning. Mordecai and Brick weren't even getting started, as Salvador had said the giant weighed eight hundred pounds, while Mordecai was numb to the intoxicating liquid from decades of experience. The two crazed warriors sang an unfamiliar drinking song over the dub-step that always played in the pub at the top of their lungs.

"Gather round ye lads and lasses, set ye for a while and harken to me mournful tale of the emerald isle! Let's all raise our glasses high to friends and family gone, and lift our voices in another Irish drinkin' song! Consumption took me mother and me father got the pox, me brother drank the whiskey 'till he wound up in a box! Me other brother in the Troubles met with his demise, me sister has forever closed her smilin' Irish eyes!" They sang in unison bring the already cheerful treasure hunter's spirits even higher. Church was on his twelfth drink alongside his longtime partner and friend Smokey. He sat in silent contemplation.

'Here I am again' Church thought. 'Sitting in a filthy booth, surrounded by inappropriately dressed woman and drunks, doing something I probably shouldn't.' He looked over to Smokey who chugged his beer and subsequently snickered, never letting his shark like grin fade. Church sighed through his nose and smiled 'Oh well' He thought while taking another sip of his drink. Axton turned around in his booth to face the new four.

"So what brings you four to Pandora, I mean obviously the ad brought you here but why did you answer it?" The inebriated commando asked. Saphyre couldn't focus enough to answer the question, and Violette was too preoccupied tracing the prints on her palms.

"Let's just say it was a bet a long time in the making," Smokey answered cryptically. Church nodded in agreement. This must've been good enough for Axton because he nodded and turned back around to address Ace drinking his oversized 1788 cocktail.

"How are you making out big guy?" Ace downs the entire drink in one painfully large gulp.

"I'm feeling big mobs better," responded the dark skinned man running his hand through his short spiked blonde hair.

"Can I get you another drink?" asked Axton. Ace shook his head.

"Better not. I need to stay sober enough to show the new guys around, "He gets up from the booth. "You guys ready? "Ace asked.

"Yeah," Church replied as he got up. Smokey followed taking his half empty bottle with him. Church looked to Violette and Saphyre. "You got her?" he asked the half insane woman. She vigorously nodded and slung the shorter woman's arm around her shoulder then lifted her up like she weighed nothing at all. With a nod they followed Ace through the pitch black night in a slightly slurred line. "Its right over here" Ace pointed but was interrupted by static on the echo followed by Moxxi's voice.

"Sorry to bother sugar but I've got a job for you," Smokey's lips curled into a suggestive smile at the thought of a possible reward.

"Go on," he urged.

"I've been having some financial issues since Sanctuary relocated to the Highlands. My only completion is the Holy spirits pub. I'm not saying to destroy or anything I have an old friend who lives there. Just vandalize it a little."

"Heh sounds like fun. I'll have it done for you," Ace responded clearly letting the alcohol take over

"I'll come to, but I'm not doing it for free," was the sadist's reaction.

"Sugar if you do this for me you'll have some **thick** pocket lining," she said putting emphasis on the word thick. "See you later tonight after the job is done," And with that the transmission ended.

"Heh-heh I like her," Smokey said vaguely resembling a school girl.

The five found themselves in front of Overlook staring down the opposing bar. In the next few minutes it was covered in nothing but toilet paper and eggs though what creature the eggs came from could not be determined.

"Hahaha I feel like a kid again," Ace's care free laughter echoed in the silence of night.

"Me too except this time there are no cops waiting around every corner to kick my ass" Said Smokey easily imitating Ace's feelings. "Church aren't you going to get in on this?" he spoke over his shoulder.

"No, to know what you ought to do and not do it is a sin on its own. But I'm doing right now. I'm not going to make it worse by joining you," Church said from the sidelines.

"Alright but you're not getting a cut of the money," Ace countered. Meanwhile Saphyre was given two cans of spray paint and had spent her time since then painting picture and words on to the windows and walls of the Irish pub. So far she had drawn serval things that I don't wish to mention and written the word meat on every pane of glass. With their work done they headed back to Sanctuary and collected their rewards of a mix of cash and guns. Violette was still asleep and hadn't stirred since they left Moxxxi's the first time. Finally, the five reaching their resting place for the night.

"I call top bunk!" Smokey cheered swinging himself into the top bunk in a room filled with nothing but empty bunks. Rolling his eyes Church took his place on the bottom bunk of a different bed. Ace shut of the lights and followed suit, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Saphyre laid Violette down gently and subsequently jumped face first into the bed next to hers. Nothing remained to make noise, all five residents in a drunken stupor.

(A/N: Oh haaaii welcome to Tina's badass corner where we take a look at what makes the vault hunters so badass. First on the list is Church the muscle man, and no I can't understand why he doesn't like it when I call him that. Son's got a set of arms that'll hit ya' like a shotty blast! His action skill is called "Blade and body" his skin gets surrounded with this super cool red light and stuff and makes his skin as sharp as the shank I used to stab Fleshstick! He's a real religious type and doesn't actually like killing or hurting people which raises the question WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GUY DOING HERE?! But against that he still managed to end up here and that is why Church is a grade-A badass!)


	5. What Piece Am I?

(A/N: Hi guys. Sorry about the last chapter it was supposed to be funnier, but I was so tired I think that I watered it down a little bit. Whops. I didn't get any reviews for that chapter yet since I'm writing them pretty close together. This chapter is from the first person view of Saphyre's consciousness; Join me on a trip through the maniac's mind. Don't worry the action starts next chapter .See ya' later.

onetimewriter: thanks I'm trying to fine tune the sixth hunter now but i'm still willing to take any oc's you guys come up with.

Garfield413: don't mention it you deserved you in you're next chapter or my next chapter which ever comes first)

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

 **Chapter 5: What piece am I?**

I woke up drenched in sweat again last night. It's the worst feeling in the world especially when you can't remember why you're soaked in the first place. She doesn't seem to mind though. She sat up flashing her usual insane smile. I don't know why she does that; we have nothing to smile about. She turned to Violette to see her sitting on the bed next to mine. Violette catches us and smiles back. That's why now I remember. Right there she just snuck a pill into that breakfast bar in her hand. Violette has been trying to find a combination of pills that would let us speak in coherent sentences for years. I wish that I could tell her to stop trying she's just wasting her time and money. Those pills would only work on someone who needed to stop their insane half from merging with their conscious ,but that's not the case here we're completely separate she just listens to me just enough to keep her from doing things that she would regret later. Violette hands me or we…her….whatever; she hands me the bar which is almost instantly scarfed down. I look around, Ace sat on the same bed that he had selected the night before, holding his head in his hands, not from a hangover but from stress it would seem. Church was awake, doing push ups on the ground to get his blood pumping. Judging from the sweat dripping from his face he had been doing this for a little while. Smokey on the other hand was still asleep, snoring lightly as he rolled around in his slumber. Ace stood up.

"I'm just going to go psych myself up for tonight, mates," He said nervously before walking out the door. No one seemed to pay this any mind. That's right there's going to be this really important mission tonight, other good guys are going to be there. Don't hurt anyone you met last night you hear me? I hope she hears me that is my biggest fear, to wake up one day and find that the influence I need to keep her from killing everyone is gone. I walk this maze of halls with bloody walls trying to remind her that she is me. Day in and day out I move endlessly, but I can't figure out which way I'm going. I don't even know what I am. Am I what she was when she was sane? Am I her subconscious? Am I a memory? If she does become sane what will happen to me?

"You alright Saph you're awful quiet," asked Violette in a genuine concerned voice. This is one of those rare times that she asks me for an answer. Smile just smile. Say some random unintelligible crap that happens to sound reassuring. Do whatever you have to, to keep her from worrying. That's all we can do for now. That's what we're for; right?

Ace sat on the roof of Moxxxi's bar taking shots at the stalkers outside with his pistol. For almost any other man these would be pot shots but for Ace this was population control. He focused the sights of his purging stinger by Vladof and took two shots the first one broke its shield and the second one landed right in between its eyes.

"Nineteen," He announced to no one with no emotion in his voice. He sighed heavily as if there was something in his lungs that he wanted to get out.

"I thought I heard gunshots up here," A voice beamed from behind. Ace recognized it easily.

"Hey Moxxi," He greeted, "Not to say I don't want you here, but you have some barflies to tend to?"

"Oh they can survive without me for a few minutes," She said while sitting next to him, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the roof. "Is something bothering you, sugar?" She asked.

"I'm just a bit nervous is all. I'm going on my first mission tonight,"

"What do you have to be nervous about, sugar you're a vault hunter now,"

"That's the thing, Sheila I don't think that I'm cut out to be a vault hunter. I'm just a simple bloke who happened to get stationed here , who happened to be charged with bringing the vault hunters to the commander upon arrival, who stuck around when he shouldn't have, and now here I am playing with the big boys," He finished giving Moxxi the clear impression that he was stressed.

"Heh-heh sugar you know there used to be trains full even space carriers full of vault hunters. Being a vault hunter means three things, one that you can hold a gun, two that you're looking for a vault, and three that you're good at what you do. And seeing as how you're making dead shots from fifteen hundred meters away with nothing but iron sight I think you fit all three criteria," the sound of all bar stool smashing was followed by a Sanctuary citizen being flung out the door that led to crazy earl's black market." Sorry, sugar I gotta go," she said while taking Rubi out of her breasts and rushing back down the latter that she came up. Ace felt oddly comforted, if what she said was true than maybe he wouldn't end up being so useless after all, it would certainly be a good change of pace. To be needed, to be useful, it's all he had ever really wanted. If this goes as planned he might have just hit the jackpot.

(A/N: "Oh haiiii welcome back to Tina's badass corner with our special guest ! How you doing Torgue baby?"

"I'M F***ING GREAT TINA. TODAY WE'RE LOOKING AT SMOKEY. HIS CLASS NAME IS CALLED SADIST AND THAT IS NOT AN EXAGERATION. MOTHER F***ER WHIPS B****ES BEFORE HE ***** THEM,"

"Torgue dial it back a bit"

"RIGHT ANYWAY HIS ACTION SKILL IS CALLED LAUGHS OF AGONY. IT TAKES ALL THE DAMAGE THAT HE TOOK IN THE LAST SIXTY SECONDS INCLUDING THE DMAGE THAT HIS SHIELD TOOK AND DEALS THE SAME AMOUNT OF DAMGE TO EVERY EMEMY IN A THIRTY FOOT RADIUS. I'LL BE F****ED IF THAT'S NOT THE MOST BADASS THING EVER!")


	6. Our Move

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: Sorry I haven't received any reviews for chapter five yet so we'll be skipping that part of the authors note today. Okay to start this off I may have gone a little over the top when I was writing the last Tina's badass corner. It wasn't until I finished posting the chapter that I realized how it sounded. I was only trying to imitate Torgue's in your face dialog. Plus He is Smokey the sadist that's sort of what we do…..THEY I MEAN THEY!)

 **Chapter 6: Our move**

The assembly of warriors sat strapped into the seats of the Dahl carrier that flew over rust commons east to Hollow Point. Lyme unbuckled her restraints, and stood up at the front of the cabin.

"Alright!" she shouted over the constant hum of the engines "We're going in there ,killing anyone wearing yellow, and by sun rise Hollow point will be ours again just like the last time! For those of you who didn't know Hollow Point is underground so we'll be landing a mile away from the entrance! That should provide enough time for Mordecai, Zero, and Ace to find a snipers nest! As for the rest of you I'm sure you don't need any instruction, for most of you this is just Wednesday!" The vault hunters felt a rising feeling in their stomach before the humming of the engines stopped, which lead them to the conclusion that they had landed. "One more thing for you new guys. You may have heard of the new-u stations. After Hyperion left the system died, we made our own system, but we only were only able to modify one station back at HQ. So try not to die but if you do you should be fine," Lyme had made her way to the bay door at the front of a cabin. She pressed a large red button with her fist, as the door immediately started to open "And most importantly have fun with it," .Church frowned at this addition to the speech. He was going to hurt and kill people again. The thought brought up an uneasy feeling in his stomach just like it had ever since that night on Promithia, but these guys were hurting people. They've done it thousands of times eight years ago and they've done hundreds of more times since resurfacing on Pandora, so he'd try his best not to feel bad about killing these guys but he wasn't giving anybody any guarantees. Shaking off his unpleasant train of thought, Church stood up and followed the others off the carrier and onto the ground. The carrier had dropped four vehicles that held many similarities to the bandit technical except that they were much sturdier and had a dessert camo paint job. The bay door closed and the carrier took off leaving the vault hunters to their objective.

"Alright hop to, mates" Ace chimed enthusiastically as he hopped into the driver seat of one of the vehicles chosen at random. Mordecai and Zero followed suit and hopped in before they took off to find a vantage point that could be used as a sufficient sniper nest.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR AN INVITATION WE GOT A JOB TO DO!" Brick shouted launching himself into the driver's seat of the second vehicle. Lilith, Fionna, Athena, and Claptrap also got into the second vehicle. In the third vehicle were Axton, Salvador, Krieg, Maya, Violette, and Saphyre. In the last vehicle were Church and Smokey with Church in the driver's seat and Smokey in the gunner's seat. The caravan moved through the dessert. The first vehicle having had a head start, the three snipers sat themselves up on a rock formation that they had to grenade jump onto. From here they could see into the entrance of Hollow Point and a little past that. Their job would be to make sure that no one escaped to call for reinforcements or come back to haunt them, though if they didn't want somebody haunting them maybe killing them wasn't such a good idea.

"You bloke got night vision scopes?" asked Ace while setting up his stand and lying on his stomach.

"Yeah," Answered Mordecai.

"I need no such thing," Spoke Zero in his usual haiku format. Mordecai looked over to Ace's weapon.

"Hey nice piece,"

"Thanks, this beauty is the Bolshy Lyuda by Vladof. Go Vladof or go home,"

"Yeah I gotta hand it to their fire rate but nothing beats a Maliwan." Mordecai stated with all of the bias.

"I feel you, mate," Ace types something into the key pad on his wrist as a new sniper rifle digstructed onto his back. He pulled it off to present to the seasoned sniper. "The sublime Jericho by Maliwan,".

Mordecai's eyes went wide under his googles.

'How did you?" He trailed.

"It's all about having the right tool for the job, mate,"

"Please pay attention/the climax is close at hand" Zero intervened. Ace re-circuits his Jericho and gets into position.

"Go tear'em up Talon" Mordecai sent his bird out to help him out a bit "Tell Lilith I said Hi," he called out to the young bird.

Vehicles drove side by side through the dessert, fast approaching Hollow point. An all too familiar voice plays over the engine in the second vehicle.

"Your new designation is FR4G-TP, Fragtrap. You are a merciless killing machine, got it?" the recording ended.

"What was that about?" Athena asked only because the others couldn't ask first.

"If you remember the time we spent together on Elpis I was Claptrap the Fragtrap. I was a well-oiled murder machine that killed anything that moved. I discovered that I could recreate this effect by simulating being given the command again.

"But you can't climb stairs," Gaige snidely comments, earning a few laughs from the other women in the back of the vehicle.

"Hold onto something!" Lilith yelled over the echo. The three vehicles rocketed over the cliff at the entrance to the cavernous city, guns a blazing. S&S personnel dropped like flies under the heavy gunfire from the exceptionally made guns and turrets on the three trucks. "Alright guys you know the drill! Spread out do your thing and meet back here when you're done!" The red headed siren shouted over the relentless banging of gun fire. Her wings spread as the familiar red glow emanated from her eyes. She felt the power rush through her veins and couldn't wait to use it once again. "This is going to be fun," She said genuinely as she started her assault on the yellow clad murderers.

(A/N: Oh haiii and welcome back to Tina's badass corner with our special guest you know him you hate him you just want to drive your fingers through his skull ladies and gentlemen the ghost of Handsome Jack.

 _Oh god how did it all go so wrong. How did I let it go so wrong *sob* why!_

Okay. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, but don't worry I'll be selling of Jack crying for only nineteen ninety nine, you know you want it. Anywho today it is Saphyre's turn, a girl after my own heart she also enjoys the simple pleasure of killing things. Her action skill is called sprynt. She uses her axes and runs around at top speeds of over ninety for miles an hour. That's faster than a mother humpin' cheetah. If I met a man that was that fast I'd be all like uh-uh you ain't getting this move on. )


	7. Bishop

Disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands

(A/N: Hey guys fun fact I haven't received any reviews for chapter five or chapter six. Oh well, here are some new reviews I got for old chapters.

Onetimewriter: Thanks, I read your fanfictions. Good work.

GMP 1000: if you meant girls then I'm on it, but if you actually meant grills then I don't know what you mean.

Garfield4 13: I have a question to ask you. Supposedly there should be a way to see how many times other people have opened one of my chapters on my account, but I can't figure it out could you tell me how? Just respond in my reviews section.

The next strings of chapters are happening at the same time and focus on different vault hunters each time. They may not always be action packed, but in those cases they'll provide a helpful look into their heads. Like always I'll be taking suggestions. Don't forget to review guys.)

 **Chapter 7: Bishop**

Brick jogged through the gunfire, shooting off his blast hammer shotgun. "Alright, this is fun; I should have brought Tina too!" He bellowed as he shot a yellow gunslinger in mid-air, landing on the still standing corpse. Twenty s's flooded out of the allies and surrounded the berserker. With a smirk and a grunt he holstered the shot gun and barreled through five unlucky s' that weren't fast enough to get out of the way; they didn't get back up again. He ran towards another group of three, shaking the gunfire like bee stings. A right hook connected with the first s knocking his head clean off. An uppercut hit the second, knocking him into the air and out of sight. Brick locked his fingers together and hammers the third into the ground leaving behind a bloody pulp. He ripped the hammer off his back and proceeded to deal with the remaining twelve. Puddles of blood lie in wake under his feet. He took in a huge breath before shouting as loud as anyone possibly could. " **IM NOT DONE YET YOU HEAR ME! IF I'M NOT THERE YYET I WILL BE SOON BY THE TIME YOU SEE ME IT WILL ALREADY BE TO LATE YOU'LL ALREADY BE DEAD!** " His word echoed through the caverns probably scaring the hell out of anyone in ear shot. "Hehehe I love this place," he proceeded in a much calmer voice.

Fionna rushed through her hometown **.** She knew this place like the back of her hand, every blind spot, every bling spot, every unlit alley way. She became invisible amongst the chaos and combat. Three s's ran through the town. None of them knew that they would be no more than cannon fodder for the vault hunters. The three passed by an ally way; one continued, not noticing the other two had dropped dead and dissipated into nothing. She strutted out of the darkened area, blowing the smoke of the ends of her new derringers. She now had two; they both had four barrels, one having been added for explosive damage, a bullet shot out of each barrel every time the trigger was pulled, and ammo belts ran up her arms and into a small pack on her back. They weren't elephant guns, but a direct hit from both of them and even a big guy lie mad Mike would drop dead. She saw movement out of her peripheral vision. Using her action skill (foresight) she ducked to avoid the rifle butt being swung at her head. Now on her knees she fired upwards into the underside of the s's chin, blowing his brains out. She stood up and dusted herself off then started for the back of town to fulfill a devilish idea that may have just been the break she and her friends needed. She thought back to when she first started out on this road to come to the self-realization that she was an entirely different person. She definitely wasn't the pawn that Valery had tried to make her into. She had been promoted to a new piece the question was which one she wanted to be.

"Are you sure you're up for this, robomigo?" Salvador asked as he unloaded his high pellet count Tediore shotguns down and alley way.

"You ain't seen nothing, yet Sal," replied the Claptrap.

"Running vault hunter dot EXE," a generic female computerized voice emitted from inside Claptrap.

"Music to my ears baby," Shouted the little yellow robot as he whipped two incendiary Vladof spin guns out, and mowed down a wave of enemies approaching from behind. Turning slowly to the right he cut through the s's like butter leaving behind an eruption of flames, a plume of smoke, and the scent of charred flesh. Not that Claptrap could smell or that Salvador cared. Though three still remained, damaged but not dead, they charged at the piece of Hyperion tech. Both of his guns were out, and he couldn't reload fast enough, what could he do? Just then two Tediore shotguns flew through the air and exploded in two of the three's faces. The third was promptly kabobs by the bayoneted on a Maliwan snipper rifle. The gunzerker smirked as he digistructed his sniper rifle in time for the shotguns to reappear in his hands. He sent Claptrap a nod.

"Impressive ambre, but a small tip before you gunzerk throw an MIRV to break up the line."

"Dooley noted; thanks for the save,"

"Don't mention it,"

Axton stood in the center of a three way intersection, holding off the incoming s's with his expansive renegade assault rifle. Large numbers start to come up on all three sides. As was second nature by now he threw a turret at the entrance of each individual alley, their shields protecting him from the oncoming attacker's gunfire. Turning his head to the third turret, the Scorpio that he had taken off Roland back in thousand cuts he fondly remembered the greatest soldier who had ever lived. He added his own bullets to the auto fire and rocket fire, just like back on Themis; he left nothing but blood and gore in his path. On Pandora war crimes were just bar fights, on Pandora war crimes were what was need, on Pandora Axton could finally be who he was.

(A/N: Oh haii welcome back to Tina's badass corner with our special guest Mad Moxxi. How ya' doin' today mama?

I'm doing well, Tina my profits have raised by two hundred percent.

I don't know what that means.

That's okay darling who are we **checking out** today?

Today is Violette.

Ah yes the brunette girl. She's a sweet heart wouldn't normally have a reason for coming here. You can tell just by talking to her that she's been dealt a bad hand. Her action skill is called gear of war which summons two surveyor droids, a pair of disembodied robot arms, and a mechanical feline, using the chimer king skill they can combine to make one big robot.

And?

And what, dear?

Say the line.

What line?

*sigh* and that is what make Violette a badass.)


	8. After Each Game

(A/N: Attention all readers! You're chance to submit an idea for the sixth vault hunter is up. I thought her/him up already and have fallen in love with the idea. However you now have the chance to vote for whether the 6th should be a man or woman, because it has no effect on said character's personality. Type girl or boy into the reviews. And now for the reviews.

Telladosteven: Comin' right up, but it might be a little bit.)

 **Chapter 8: After Each Game**

Athena remembered the terrain well; she had lived here for a while before her contract with Felix had been activated. It felt weird for her to always come back to the same place after every contract, but at the same time it felt natural; like this was how it was supposed to be. She definitely wouldn't mind if that was the case. With sword, shield, and gun she cut through the legion of murderers just like she had done twice before, but this time she was working her way in a straight line. She had been taking on an endless line of s's head on against her better judgment, but she just had to get there. With her shield drawn she moved back and forth, using it as mobile cover to save her Tediore shield the trouble, all the while she used a Jakobs repeater to return fire. The hand cannon dismembered limbs and exploded heads. She threw her shield the resulting explosion killed one of the only two and knocked the other one back. Seeing her opportunity she drew xiphos from its sheath, and she leapt into the air landing a hit right on the nape of his neck which resulted in a satisfying decapitation. She surveyed the familiar area. There it was. In front of her was a shadily one floor house with a garage on the right side. She took the key she had in her pocket and unlocked the door; readying her pistol she swung the door open, and stepped cautiously inside. The living room was scarce, but typical couch, coffee table, and TV. A single framed picture hung right above the couch in which a tall blonde woman smiled widely as she draped her arm around a not much younger version of Athena.

"Oh Janey." She sighed longingly with a soft smile. She remembered having this picture taken. She proceeded to the room to the left of the kitchen. A bed lay in the center of the room against the wall; there were two night stands on either side of the bed. Next to their wedding picture on the right hand night stand was a golden ring. Picking it up gingerly with her left hand she let the two identical bands clink together. The memories came rushing back; Janey was welding when S&S forced her and almost everyone else out of Hollow point so she had taken her ring off and left it where she knew she wouldn't forget it, Athena was busy helping the vault hunters with something important at the time, she remembered Janey telling her the story in one breath, she remembered the heartbroken face on the verge of tears that she never wanted to see again, she remembered the boundless feeling of rage that she felt for S&S at that moment. Putting the ring into a small pocket she continued on to kill more of those yellow bastards so that she could keep on coming back here, back to this home, back to this bed, and back to her woman.

" **I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!** " Krieg screamed his usual battle cry as he ripped through flesh and bone, basting himself in the liquid that he constantly desired. He dual wielded his buzz-axe and a rapier rifle. Because of his sheer weight and strength he barley felt the kick from the rapid fire weapon. Having finished decimating a four man rifle squad on a roof top he looked down to Mya who was firing her Maliwan smg down and ally to keep the combatants at bay. Wherever he went she followed; wherever she went he followed granted she was usually the one who knew where she was going, but the point still stands. She stood firm firing into the crowd. At that moment she was at the pinnacle of violent beauty. She was his Valkyrie, his amazon, his.. "Warrior princess," he spoke out loud in a whisper. Unfortunately she didn't have eyes in the back of her head as was made apparent when she didn't react to a man stalking behind her with a knife in both hands. His left eye twitched erratically, his vision turned red, ha violent song played in his head, and he jumped from the roof as he screamed the main lyrics. " **ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!** "He landed on the attacker and used his strong arm to pound the man's face into oblivion. Once he was done he stood up panting heavily. Maya smiled as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Good boy," she said jokingly, but with affection. A satisfied growl emanated from under his mask.

Gaige walked casually through the attack. A Vladof pistol held loosely in her right hand. Death trap took care of whatever came her way while she added support fire with her pistol. It didn't look like much, but was much better than almost any assault rifle out there. Though the Boss Gatling Gun by Jakobs would have it beat. She had rigged the pistol up to shoot gyro jets on top of the corrosive properties of the gun, and high fire rate of the Vladof. Bang, her kill count just rose again. Boom there it went again. How high would it get? She had killed so many hundreds of people since Marcey. She got more use to it for sure, but that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach stayed the same. It was just something that would never go away, but it was coupled with the blinding thrill of offing someone who's trying to hurt you. She loved what she did. The excitement, the adventure, the overwhelming anarchy made her feel like her skin was electric. It was good that she still got that sick feeling in her stomach. It meant that she still had her humanity, something that so many others had forfeited, so easily, and because of this she felt more alive than anyone here.

(A/N: Oh haiii welcome to Tina's badass corner with our special guest Hammerlock.

That's Sir Hammerlock

Does it matter?

Of course it matters I'm a baron.

Yeah whatever, today it's Ace's turn. What do you have to say about Ace Ham?

Please don't call me that. Ace, like me has quite a fondness for wildlife. Which is only possible on Pandora because of his action skill "dream time" Using the magic incantations and techniques past down from his aboriginal predecessors he has learned how to control animal's minds and use them in battle or keep them from ripping you to pieces at the very least. If he has the time concentrates hard enough like say time that he is not being shot at then he can also hypnotize humans into doing his work for him. All of his incantations come in the form of song which is great because before you die you get to listen to his dreamy…deep…sexy singing voice.

Hammerlock if you're gay for pay then I don't think I have enough money for you buddy.


	9. Knight

Disclaimer: I do not own borderlands.

(A/N: Hey it's Tina I just realized that I forgot to say the thing in the last chapter so real quick, and that is why Ace is a badass.

I've only gotten one vote so far. Maybe you're thinking that oh I want to see what he does on his own. Well the truth is that it doesn't matter someone has already voted girl and if I don't get any more votes that will simply be my decision. I do have a question, why are you guys obsessing over incendiary guns. What difference does it make what element the gun is? If I have a Jakobs shotgun and shoot someone in the face with it they will die all the same, and on top of that there are plenty of fire guns in here already Smokey's main weapon is a fire weapon, Claptrap used them a little bit ago, Violette's Bane is the fire version, and Ace is using one right now up in the sniper's nest.

St4te of Gr4ce: Thank you for your input.)

 **Chapter 9: Knight**

Sword met flesh like the countless bullets before it. Church the crusader struck with such power and precision that it seemed almost superhuman. He stood his ground against the oncoming forces. The excalibastard railgun in his left hand and his right handed sword in his right hand. He slashed through opponents frozen or otherwise. The adrenaline had kicked in and pumped through his veins, it felt amazing as usual. Whenever he fought it gave him a feeling that nothing else could. He had to focus. He had to concentrate. He had a job to do; he couldn't let the feeling overwhelm him again, never again. Violent screams rang in his ears, but they weren't coming from the S's, no these screams were in his memories.

He had gotten a tip that he could make a lot of money with his obvious talents on Promithia. They called them "Blood matches," they were like MMA or bareknuckle boxing except that all combatants were allowed to use wooden weapons. The next day he took a shuttle from Eden-2, he didn't like violence but he was good at it and he needed the money. His first match was against a man named Saw Belt, he used nine sectioned chain whips, his head was bald and tattooed, and he wore a red vest with a patch of a circular saw blade over his heart, with no shirt. There was only one rule whoever drew blood first won. Saw Belt whipped his chains down onto Church who easily blocked the clumsy and ultimately ineffective attack. Church made a pair of scissors out of his swords and cut his weapons in half. Ecstasy, excitement, euphoria; all of which described the feeling that overtook Church's nerve system. He lost all control, laying into the undeserving man in front of him with the wooden blade. He did a whole lot more than draw blood, he broke ribs, he ruptured organs, in the heat of the moment he may have even successfully scalped the man with the non-existent blades. Over the sound of his heart beating like drums in his ears he hear Saw Belts cries for mercy and pleads for help, but he didn't care. After a life time of pacifism he didn't care that he was beating this man to death. Finally the rush wore off but all too late. Saw Belt was already dead; if he was alive somehow he wouldn't be for much longer. He looked in horror at what he'd done and then discovered in even more horror that the people were cheering for him. After what he'd just done the crowd was still cheering his name.

"Ouch! Damn it!" Church was brought out of his thought when a fire round finally knocked off the last bit of his shield and nailed him right in the leg. He shot the offender with his cryo-gun, gritting his teeth as he swore that he would never lose control like that again.

Violette pushed her summon button as her robotic companions' digistructed around her.

"Sick em'," She nonchalantly commanded as her bots spread out to attack the nearest designated target, except for her surveyor drones which hung around in case someone got too close. Sound of a tin can being crushed just barley rose over the sound of chaos in the city. In the blink of an eye she turned on her heels and filled the S's face with buckshot from 1340.

"Direct hit satisfaction levels at maximum capacity," the conscious weapon proclaimed out loud as if he had no other choice in the matter. She then turned to Red and Blue hovering above her.

"What did I build you guys for!?" the young engineer exclaimed at the red and blue surveyors. "Hm. The proximity sensors must be damaged," She waved her hand, signaling them to take on the same objective that the others were given she reloaded 1340 and ran to where ever there may be more S's. She knew that her kill count was probably low compared to someone like Axton or Krieg, but she didn't care; killing was never really high on her list of things that she wanted to do. There were only two people that she wanted to kill. Those damn brothers were going to pay, she would see to that. A child died with her parents that day and a vendetta was born. She would stop at nothing to watch as the life drained from their eyes. She was ripped from her thoughts when bullets scattered around her feet. She immediately ducked for cover against a wall. She peeked her head out a little she saw a watch tower with six me armed to the teeth. Whacking her brain as to what to do she remembered the prototype that Commander Lyme had given her before the attack.

Lyme and Violette stood across from each other at the holo- table where Lyme had sat a gun in front of her. It looked like a cross between a sniper rifle and a cannon.

"This is the stage launcher a Dahl prototype. The gun fires a secondary launching mechanism that fires a grenade. The grenade it fires is called the decisive frag grenade. It has a compression device in the center that detonates the gun powder in the bullets loaded into each hole on the surface. The bullets are wave rifle rounds so they will bounce back and forth until they hit someone," The high ranking woman looks up to the engineer to see her astonished face.

"That's ingenious. Who thought of this?" She gaped.

"The blue prints were submitted anonymously by a man who uses the pen name Telladosteven."

She thanked god for Telladosteven as she pulled the stage launcher out of her pack. After steadying the shot she fired the grenade into the roof of the watch tower and landed on the floor. The second after that the grenade went off and the wave rifle rounds ricocheted off the walls and ceiling until the S's were Swiss cheese.

"Awesome!" She cheered upon seeing the coolest thing that anyone will ever see.

(A/N: Oh haiii and welcome back to Tina's badass corner with today's special guest Crazy Earl.

WHATCH'YOU WANT?!

What are you talking about you agreed to be here.

IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE!

I'm not alone you're right here.

WHER ARE YOU SKRAPPY?! SKRAPPY!

God I thought you would be the fun kind of crazy, but you're just annoying. Look what you did you wasted all of our time. There's only one hope now, no one can resist the ultimate outro. Punch that like button in the face like a boss!, and high fives all around, I will see all you dudes in the next video!)


	10. Killer Kings

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands.

(A/N: Hello again guys I don't really have anything to say right now so let's just go on to the reviews.

Sta4te of Gr4cce/ telladosteven. I bet you thought that I wasn't going to do it, that you yourself thought it was a ridiculous idea, but you didn't account for my ability to find potential everywhere. How are you St4te of Gr4ce and Telladosteven at the same time? )

 **Chapter 10: Killer kings**

"I can dance all day! I can dance all day! Try to hit me! Try to hit me! Come on!" she ran between soldiers in her usual ninety five mile an hour pace, dual wielding one buzz axe and anew pistol she found and instantly fell in love with, specifically because whenever she shot someone with it they exploded. "My hearts racing! My hearts racing! My hands are shaking!" six more men just lost their heads "But I'm still shooting and I'm still getting those headshots like boom headshot boom headshot boom headshot!" the unkempt Harold shot three men point blank in the back of the head before any of them knew what was going on. Blood rained down like confetti "Let's start the party!" 'That's right; get it out of your system if there is a system to get it out of in the first place.' She took off to find someone else to cut down. What she found instead inspired conflicting feelings. A little girl trembled in the much older woman's wake. She froze like a statue, buzz-axe raised, and her smile having disappeared from her face. Neither side of the manic woman had expected this. Images flashed through her head. A little girl around the same age as the one in front of Saphyre. Unlike that girl this one had streaks of brown mixed in with her pale blond. Running, playing, and laughing as if she had no idea what was going to happen to her in the future. 'You did it!' chimed the voice in her head 'You remembered a time when you were sane. She asked what to do as she was at a loss. 'First put your damn weapons away, you've been scaring the living daylights out of her for the last half minute.' Saphyre quickly put her weapons away. 'Good now get down to her eye level.' The much taller woman kneeled down to look into the little girl's eyes. On closer inspection the girl wasn't that young just short, she was around twelve. 'Now hold out your hand. Don't say anything you'll just scare her.' Saphyre held out her hand. Faster than the human could possibly see she pulled out a Maliwan slag pistol. 'Stay calm! Stay calm!' her consciousness had to shout before muscle memory took over 'Of course she has a gun this is Pandora she'd be crazy not to. She thinks that you're going to hurt her that mask you wear is pretty common around here, try smiling, and I don't mean your insane smile I mean a gentle smile.' Saphyre gave the girl a calm smile. The girl looked at the maniac skeptically for a moment before putting her pistol away; she took Saphyre's hand and shook it. 'Now I need you to concentrate, you're going to have to talk to her. Repeat after me…'

"It's dangerous out here. Come with me and I'll get you somewhere safe," she spoke calmly and clearly, for a moment it was as if she weren't fractionally insane. The girl nodded.

"My name's Stella" She said meekly. 'Say your name nit-wit' commanded the voice in her head.

"I am Saphyre,"

Smokey was having the time of his life. The cat o' nine tails was the perfect weapon. Shoot at the ground then nine beams bounce back to hit the enemy. He could kill the little groups the S's seemed to stay in with ease. Then he'd watch with glazed eyes as they screamed their last screams before their vocal cords along with the rest of them disintegrated into ashes. One last S&S remained a woman soldier.

"Heh-heh score," He said aloud. She steadied her rifle in his direction. His whip wrapped around the stock of the Vladof gun and pulled it out of her hands and into his own. "Snazzy weapon you've got here," he said before tossing it over his shoulder. Raising the handle of his whip over his head and struck her, he struck her again, and again, and again, and again. She screamed oh how she screamed. She lay on the ground gritting her teeth, in too much pain to move away from the end that was undoubtedly awaiting her in a few seconds. He walked up, put the barrel to her head, and pulled the trigger, his smile never fading for a second. "I love my job," He said in a low murmur.

Lilith had stayed close to the beginning to keep a look out for reinforcements and retreating S's. Charred bodies lay around the vehicles that the vault hunters had started the assault with. With her wings spread wide she kept a sharp eye out. At any given moment a burst of gunfire could fly out of the allies. As if on cue a real big guy (imagine a cross between a badass psycho and a bruiser) walked into her line of vision, his yellow uniform and matching gun gave away his affiliation. He was a big and sturdy guy, a simple phase blast wasn't going to be enough to take this guy down but it would be a start. Reacting quickly she entered her phase walk. Running further towards him, she saw his eyes gleam a shade of purple. He raised his rifle and in one shot hit her, depleted her shield, and knocked her out of phase walk. 'What the hell! Can he see me!?' The siren shouted inwardly. Before he could fire again the red headed siren threw a longbow transfusion grenade, he shot it out of the air. The shot having negated the normal homing effect a few bolts hit him by chance sending the healing tendrils Lilith's way. She took out a purple class incendiary bandit shotgun, and unloaded rounds right into him as he proceeded to walk closer still. The shots dug into his flesh and burned a small area around the penetration point for a few seconds before burning out. He kept walking towards her not panicking or wavering in the slightest. Soon he was standing right in front of her. 'What is this thing!?' the siren continued to shout inwardly as she franticly tried to reload her gun, but was not given the chance as the monster had gapped her in a bear like grip. She struggled and thrashed, but to no avail as he proceeded to crush the life out of her body. Just then a familiar screech filled the air before Talon swooped down and dug his claws into the monster's eyes. He let go of her to try to swat blindly at the bird, but was cut short by a Maliwan slag round that pierced his brain. He dropped to his knees then the ground. Lilith looked out the entrance just in time to see a scope gleam. She waved her hands as Talon settled himself in on her shoulder.

"Thank god for friends." She spoke aloud, not caring who hears this time.

(A/N: Sorry guys Tina's Badass corner is taking a little break for now. There will definitely be at least one more vault hunter when the sixth vault hunter comes in. That said if you guys submit any talking points that you want to hear Tina talk about I'm always open to suggestions. Thank you everybody my name is Luca and I will see you in the next chapter buh-bye.)


	11. Rook

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hey guys. Its official, I now have one more review than I do chapters. Two of those don't count because they were from me to you guys, unless you're not like me and you don't read the review section. Now on to the comments.

To Telladosteven and St4te of Gr4ce keep on sending those designs in as I can assure you that I will use them as both my sister and I have taken a liking to them.)

 **Chapter 11: Rook**

"The big guy makes twenty six for me," Mordecai stated, keeping his score. Zero fired his Jakobs.

"Twenty seven," stated the assassin next. Ace fired

"Thirty four," Stated the Australian man.

"How!?" Mordecai retorted irritably.

"Vladof," He replied, moving the gun over to the more seasoned sniper "Give it a burl, mate," Mordecai takes the rifle and in the next ten seconds….

"Twenty six," He counted aloud looking unwilling to part with the new gun.

"Heh-heh when you think about it a sniper is sort of like the rook in that old chess game. No matter how far away our enemy is so long as they're in front of us we can kill them," Ace said in his thick accent.

"Well said my comrade/ I could not have said it better myself," Zero spoke in his usual format.

"Why do you talk like that, mate?" He asked what everyone had clearly wanted to but never had. He had waited for this question that seemed inevitable at the time, but never came until now.

"Because it is hard/ I find pleasure in challenge,"

"I'll say. I stand a Buckley's chance in speaking like you, mate,"

"Twenty nine, thirty," Was the masked man's response.

"Twenty seven" Mordecai followed soon after. With a smirk Ace made his own sound off.

"Thirty five,"

Saphyre had gotten Stella out of harm's way and into a secluded corner of town that no one else would be heading any time soon. Both of the female fighters had their pistols at the ready just in case. Saphyre sat across from her new companion afraid to speak, for she knew that if she did she would only succeed in frightening the young girl. Finally Stella broke the silence.

"Um. Can you explain what's going on here?" asked the pint-sized gunslinger, not knowing anybody.

'Here we go again. Okay repeat after me-'

"Let me try my hand, banshee," she cut off her sane half.

"What?" Stella asked obviously confused. Saphyre continued.

"I and the riders of flames are here to expel the yellow poison." She answered insanely, but calmly. Sensing that this was the best answer she would get. She nodded.

"Okay. I think I know what you mean."

'Good enough,' the sound of static emanated from the maniac's echo before it cleared into Lilith's voice.

"Alright, I think that's all of them. People have stopped running for their lives" The transmission ended from her end.

"Hey guys, get to the data center at the back of town. I think I've got something. I'm marking it on your echo's," Came Fionna in a confident voice. Saphyre looked over to Stella.

"No more, no more pain, safe,"

"You gotta go huh?" Saphyre nodded, her gestures being more easily interpreted than her words. "Take care of yourself, and Thank you,"

"Thank the bicycle goddess little one," She said before taking off towards the data center. She was half way through her course following the little green diamond on her echo set, when she came across a woman being pinned to a metal wall by a much larger man. The man's eyes spoke of lust and ruthlessness and the tent in his pants spoke of his intensions. His hands squeezed tightly around her throat, Saphyre stopped, rather her sane side had stopped having thought she saw someone in need of help. This notion had quickly been dismissed when she saw the unamused expression on her face. She wasn't scared or struggling, matter of fact she looked pissed. The man put a hand over her mouth to muffle what he thought would be her eventual screams, but was shocked when the force of her jaws simply spread his finger one of which was promptly bitten clean off. He fell on his ass holding his offended hand; looking up to the woman he saw the unending hell in her amber eyes. Scared shitless he rose from his place on the ground and ran like no tomorrow.

"That's right, run. Make the hunt more fun," She said in a tone laced with excitement. Her muscles bulged, her skin color darkened, fur sprouted from the follicles all over her body, and she grew into the shape of a cross between a skag and person as well as in size in the sense that she got bigger, though not enough to rip her loose blue windbreakers and confederate flag t-shirt. Unfortunately for the rapist he didn't have Saphyre's speed and was almost immediately pounced upon. He cried in blood curdling screams as his entrails were ripped out by jagged and sharp teeth. He blood stained the ground and her long black hair (imagine a female version of Gajeel's hair style from fairy tail). The screams stopped and the now apparent were-skag stood over her kill. Her metamorphoses undid itself as the blood was made more apparent on her face. She quickly spit all of the fluid out of her mouth, who knew how many STD's this guy probably had. Her attention was taken away from her probable infection by a loud clapping sound coming from her left. She looked over to Saphyre who was clapping for the amazing display of blood and glared. Changing only her hands into sharp claws she ran at the maniac and swiped at her. Saphyre clumsily dodged the strikes that missed her by a hair. Finally as Saphyre was cornered and had nowhere else to run she shouted.

"I don't want to hurt you!" The were-skag's claw froze in place just inches away from the maniac's eye" Please come with me. My friends will want to see you," She spoke calmly. 'I'm not telling you to do this. How are you-'

"Who are your friends?" She asked skeptically, interrupting the soundless voice. 'A psycho dressed as a normal person was still a psycho, but if she could speak coherently was she a psycho.'

'Okay don't mess this up say it with me va-'

"Vault hunters" Saphyre answered not paying her inner voice any mind. 'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!' She seemed to ponder this for a moment.

"Vault hunters huh? Alright, get the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of killing S&S two birds in one stone. Okay bring me to them. The names Tex by the way" She said while grapping Saphyre's hand and shaking it firmly.

"Saphyre" She said while getting ready to hit the road once more. Tex spotted this and put up a finger.

"Hold on one moment," She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. Not a minute later did a full grown grey hound come running to the prominent woman. "That's a good boy, Brice," She cooed giving him a scratch behind the ears that the animal seemed to enjoy to know end. "Okay now we can go," The two women took off together, Saphyre had to run at only thirty miles an hour to stay pace with the dog and woman, but still thirty miles an hour was an impressive running speed. Saphyre had considered herself lucky; she was making a lot of friends today.

(A/N: So sorry if this sucked, I'm so tired and my editor is out so this may be far from perfect. Tina's badass corner will be returning tomorrow so see you guys then.)


	12. Questions

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: I have rewritten this chapter because it literally was the worst thing I have ever written; I don't know how I managed it. I sincerely hope you enjoy it . I hate a lot of things right now. I held out hope for so long that Krieg was Tina's father, but I just found footage of the creator rejecting that theory.

St4te of Gr4ce: you're awesome dude.)

 **Chapter 12: Questions**

After finding Tex Saphyre went on to lead her to their new objective. Upon arriving she saw that a few of the vault hunters had yet to arrive. Salvador, Brick, Violette, and Gaige were still making their way to the information center. Those that had made it there admired the scorch marks and gore that lay all around the waypoint. Church caught the sight of Saphyre, he turned to greet her when he noticed the new face and animal that stood impatiently behind her,

"Hey Saphyre, who's you're friend there?" Everyone who heard him turned to look at the tall and slightly muscular woman (as muscular as a woman can get without it hindering her sexiness)

"The wolf lady sprayed the blood like vango!" Answered the maniac.

"She means that I kill good. I want to join you guys," She spoke in an abnormally straight forward manner that threw a few of the gunslingers off gaurd. The other vault hunters had expected this to happen, they always started out as a group of four, but two more always join in after the fact. Brice let out a bark after his master's request which immediately drew Brick's attention to the fact that there was a dog in his vicinity. Acting on instinct that he had acquired from past experiences with the K-9 creatures he ran up to pet him.

"Hey little buddy," He cooed as he went to scratch the dog's scalp.

"Wait, don't!" Tex warned but too late, Brice had already latched himself onto Brick's forearm. Brick just chuckled as he admired the dog's gusto. He could hardly feel the bite through his calices. "He has an unfortunate way of showing it, but that actually means that he likes you," She explained, putting the scar on her forearm on display. 'Brice hasn't had that reaction to another person for as long as I've known him,' She admired the berserker's intense musculature, and jagged scars. 'I may have hit a jackpot here.' She thought, feeling an overwhelming feeling of content wash over her.

"Alright you can stay with us for now, when we get back to Sanctuary we'll see what you've got and talk about it some more," Lilith compromised as she continued walking onward, just wanting to go home. "Come on it's this one over here," The red headed siren pointed over to the next building down the line as they all followed each other up the stairs and into the one room building. Fionna turned around to greet the rest of her team with a smile.

"Hey guys," she greeted happily.

"All of that. You did all of that, yourself?" Maya asked in astonishment, obviously referring to the Krieg levels of carnage outside.

"You sound a bit too surprised for my taste

"What did you find?" asked Axton.

"S&S computer, "She answered. " I'm sure that if I could just get into the damn thing then I Could find the lead we've been looking for," She continued typing until a red "X" Flashed on the screen. "For the love of God!" She screamed, her patience having finally broken. "Does anyone here know computers?"

"Gaige do you think you could help us out here?" Asked Axton over the echo.

"Sorry Ax, I'm a robotics genius and that does take some programming expertise, but hacking is a whole other skill set,"

"How about you, Violette?" Church asked his team's engineer.

"Same here sorry guys,"

"Okay let's see what Vaughn has to say about this," She sighed as she pushed her contact button. "Vaughn. Vaughn. Wake up Vaughn!"

"What!? Damnit Fionna it's three in the morning!" the ex- accountant shouted.

"I need a hacker," Calmly answered the Pandoran con-artist. A short pause.

"Alright what are we looking at here?" He said sounding disappointed in himself.

" I need information off this computer, but I can't get into it,"

"Don't bother trying to guess the password. You need to get the hard drive out of the CPU

"The what out of the what?"

"See that plastic box that's hooked up to the computer?

"Yeah,"

"Rip it open," She used her knife to pry the side off the console.

"Okay, what now?"

"See the metal box inside? Rip it out," She pulled as hard as she could and the hard drive came out.

"Alright. Are you still at the vault?" She asked as she put the metal box in her back pack.

"Yes, but not for long. I've got an appointment in Fyrestone tomorrow afternoon so you better get here at around two a' clock,"

"Okay, see you then," and with that Fionna ended the transmission.

"Mission accomplished guys get back to the drop sight. Lyme when we get back we'll have one more vault hunter than we started out with, don't shoot her."

"Affirmative. Jenson turn this thing around,"

Back on the carrier Commander Lyme inspected Tex very closely. Of Couse Tex noticed, but she didn't care enough to say anything about it. She was probably trying to decide if she was a spy or not. Tex couldn't blame her someone random woman just showed up and demanded she join the alliance, even she would find that a little suspicious. The high ranker broke her staring contest with the mysterious warrior, and stood up to address the rest of the vault hunters.

"Job well done gentleman," She said, her straight face unfaltering.

"Did you hear my conversation with Vaughn?" Fionna asked wondering if she would have to explain that.

"Yes. We'll take care of that later, for now we rest,"

(A/N: This was the worst chapter so far. I haven't slept in three days and I feel sick. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. I may be taking a break to recharge a little bit. Look for my chapters again by this time next week.

Oh haii and welcome to Tina's badass corner today with our special guest Ellie the new owner of catch-a-ride.

Howdy, today its Tex's turn. She's a remnant of that whole Jakobs cove fiasco. She can go back and forth between were-skag and sexy wolf lady. Her action skill is called paper moon. She also has this cute as a button greyhound named Brice. All in all she's a bad bitch who doesn't take shit and has a soft spot for dogs and men with scars, and you'd best be sure not to piss her off because you'll have a bullet between your eyes before you can say oh god not between my eyes! I'm not gonna lie that's pretty badass right there.


	13. Answers

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: I lied. Looks like I'm starting up again a bit earlier than planned in the spirit of Halloween. I have gotten no reviews for chapter twelve yet so it looks like we're skipping that part. For any of you who may be wondering what Tex's and Ace's intros were they would be Ace as the marksmen, and Tex as the apex.)

 **Chapter 13: Answers**

After the ride back to Sanctuary the vault hunters gathered in the map room back at HQ for the debriefing. There wasn't much to talk about though, everyone already knew that they freed Hollow point, got some S&S info and tomorrow they would go to the Nexus edge (where the vault of the traveler is. I named it myself. What do you think?). The debriefing was mostly just Brick bragging about how many people he punched into red mist. Tex watched intently as the giant moved about. The angry fire in her eyes lessened when she saw him. It wasn't until she got back and saw everyone in good light that she realized that all the men were ripped in their own right and covered from head to toe in scars in order from Brick, Church, Mordecai, Smokey, and Axton. After everything that needed to be said was said the mercenaries began to disperse. Lyme walked over next to Fionna.

"Are you sure that your man is good enough?" The commander softly inquired. Fionna just smirked and replied.

"Oh yeah he's good, besides we've got two of them for good measure,"

"Hey buddy," Violette called about the room effectively stopping everyone dead in their tracks. "If you're here right now I'd appreciate if you came out. I have a question for you." The rest of the gang understood who she was trying to call, but Tex just stared at her like she was as crazy as her friend. Of course her stare was drawn to a completely different thing all together when the Eridian appeared and floated above the holo-map. Muscle memory took over as Tex transformed in the blink of an eye and lunged at the alien who used it's telekinesis to keep her suspended in the air, as the vault hunters marveled at what had just happened. Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai immediately recognized the sight of a were-skag. All three of them granted her the benefit of the doubt, who were they to pass judgment on someone who may just feel misunderstood.

"I mean you no harm. Please calm down," The Eridian spoke calmly as it lowered the apex onto the ground. She stayed wary as she received an affirmation from each vault hunter except for Brick who just stared starry eyed as he whispered "cool" to himself. She transformed back, consoled by the fact that she could just as easily turn back. Brice growled sensing his master's skepticism of the situation. A quiet sh silenced the dog.

"What did you want to ask of me?"

"Why is S&S trying to open this vault in the first place? What do they gain from freeing the Eridians?" The engineer asked with a deadly serious air about her.

"The phase system has a few side effects. When living things are stored inside the vaults whoever opens them has a chance to control whatever lies inside, but certain measures must be taken. For instance Steele didn't even know that there was a living thing in the first vault, so naturally once it was released it attacked her. And at the same time when Jack opened the vault on Elpis the sentinel attacked him, but after the transaction Jack learned of how to activate the vault's control system and used it to awaken and utilize the warrior. S&S has been watching. If S&S opens this vault they will control the entirety of the Eridian race,"

"Well that doesn't sound good," Gaige chimed in a care free manner.

"So that's what Zarpedon was yammering about before Jack put a bullet between her eyes. Jack opened the vault on Elpis, learned how to use the phase system, controlled the warrior, and tipped S&S off on how to do it themselves. If we don't do something this could very well mean the end of the universe," Sensing that there was no more questions for it the Eridian disappeared once again. Silence befell on the assembly of badasses.

"So care to shed some light on us Wolf lady," Lilith commented in the snarkiest way possible. Tex knew this wasn't coming, she had nothing to hide.

"My name is Elizabeth Altman. My friends call me Tex, that is that they used to. On Jun 17th three thousand and nine my group and I were captured by Dr. Ned in Jakobs cove and experimented on. He said that we were to be used for finding a cure or inoculation for the zombie virus that he had created. I watched as he turned my friends into mindless, hungry, viscous animals. He had saved me for last. After all of that I went on to watch you and your friends kill my own," Tex spoke coldly with a hint of acid in her voice. "Don't worry I don't blame you it wasn't your fault. After that I roamed Jakobs cove until S&S came back to collect their collateral. Dr. Ned ad a choice to either work for Jakobs or S&S and he dooped them into thinking he worked for both of them. I was captured by a man named . Ned's relative who was even more fucked up if you can believe it. He added his own work to his brother's to bring me back and give me more control over my abilities with the intentions of brain washing me into being a super soldier of some sort. Joke was on them. I escaped and took a good few out with me I might add. After that I just kept on roaming waiting for my chance to hit S&S back and hard. That's why I was in Hollow point when she found me," She pointed to Saphyre. The Vault hunters were surprised; the way she was talking about this sounded like she had practiced this explanation time and time again.

"When does the puppy come into this?" Brick asked not having ever really cared about any of the stuff Lilith was making Tex talk about in the first place. Tex looked down beside her to her Greyhound.

"Brice? I found him being chased by Rakk in the dust. Poor thing wasn't even a year old yet. An animal like a dog has no place on a planet like this. I don't know how he got here. He sees me as more of another dog rather than a person so naturally he just started following me around; not that I would have let him go on by himself in the first place," Brick seemed extremely satisfied by this answer, which in turn satisfied her.

"Alright, I've heard enough," Lilith looked to Axton who shared a nod with her. "Welcome aboard, Tex. I'm sorry about your friends,"

"Don't mention it. I look forward to kicking some ass with you guys," She finished.

"Okay everybody turn in for tonight, we still have our mission tomorrow," Lyme demanded. She wasn't in charge, but it just so happened that everyone agreed with her as they started funneling out of the HQ. All that remained was Athena and Janey who Athena had told to stay here. Once they were alone Athena pulled the ring out of her pocket with a blush across her face. As a reward for her gesture of affection she was instantly tackled to the ground in a fit of love, passion, and excitement, and for once Athena didn't mind one bit.

The six newest vault hunters walked down the street to the barracks where they lived. Church held out his hand to Tex.

"Hi. The name's church," He introduced himself in a show of friendliness. Tex gladly took his hand.

"Nice to meet you," She replied; refusing to take her eyes of the scars running up and down his arms. After three pumps she let go. The others introduced themselves as well but saw no need for formalities like Church. Once they got back to the barracks. Everyone passed out except for Tex who was kept awake by her thoughts. As usual Brice curled up in a ball beside her and she was only reminded of the fact that someday she was going to have to bury him. She felt tears prick her eyes at the reminder that she was definitely going to outlive her boy. Thoughts like this never went over well in her head. Though eventually she found the fatigue to let her sleep.

(A/N: * sniffle* Damn that was sad. Why do you do this to me author person. Tina doesn't like you no more!)


	14. What Move Are They Going To Make?

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: I'd like to take some time to thank my contributors, St4te of Gr4ce and Telladosteven. You guys have made this story a bit more awesome and are going to make it more awesome. I get genius ideas almost every day.

Survivor and the fighter: Thanks I took a lot of the inspiration for my female characters from women in my life. That said wish me luck.

St4te of Gr4ce: stop reading my mind you're gonna spoil it for my other readers. : )

Guest: I had absolutely no idea. Everyone pretend that I said what he said.

In the last chapter I left out something sort of important detail. "I was captured by Dr. Ted. Dr. Ned's even more fucked up relative," That should have fixed it.)

 **Chapter 15: What Move Are They Going To Make!?**

Nine hours after they had all turned in for the night the Vault hunters and ex vault hunters alike gathered at Helena square to use the fast travel system. Fionna stood in front of the machine, typing in the travel code for Nexus Edge, leaving the others to their friendly conversation.

"I slept like a log last night," said Smokey while he massaged the spot where a shock round had cut through his shield and nailed him in the arm.

"Same," Responded Church. "Did you sleep well?" He asked Saphyre, trying to continue the chain.

"The darkness did not come last moon,'' Saphyre answered her manic persona having retreated into the back of her mind.

'What was I expecting?' Church inwardly asked, referring to the Maniac's only slightly coherent answer.

"Nightmares again?" Violette asked in a concerned tone. The speedy psycho nodded in a defeated fashion. "Was it him again?" another nod. Church, Ace and Smokey wanted to know who he was, but decided against it, and Tex just didn't care altogether.

"You guys ready?" Fionna announced to the fifteen people behind her. "Here we go," She entered her code into the fast travel machines (now sponsored by Dahl). They were enveloped in their own individual digital blue tunnels.

The system had put them out in front of a large concrete tunnel large enough to drive a vehicle through. The tunnel seemed to lead to a large bunker like building not too far off in the horizon. Fionna stepped forward to take lead. "The entrance is at end of this tunnel," The con-artist lead the others down the elongated tunnel, which was kept, lit only by the small lights that were bolted to the ceiling.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Church voiced his anxiety about his current situation.

"Well now that you mention it," Violette trailed having suddenly taken on Church's concerns.

"Oh come on guys you're just getting a little claustrophobic is all," Just then as if to spite the sadist bandits stepped out in front of them. "Shit," He groaned as he turned around to see the bandits coming up behind them as well. Smokey looked to Church who had a smug smile across his face. "Don't you give me that look, this was just a coincidence," The bandits moved in closer, and encircle the vault hunters. Tex was suddenly extremely glad that she had left Brice at home.

"Guys this isn't good. They're all using shock weapons," Maya warned. A bandit pointed his pistol right at the blunette in response. A hand came in from the side wrapping its fingers around the barrels and crushed it. The bandit followed the arm to the hulking psycho attached to it, and without saying a word pulled a shotgun of his back and Krieg raised his fist. "Krieg no!" Maya pushed the shotgun out of the way. The lights went off just in time for the muzzle flash to illuminate the concrete structure.

"Shit!" Smokey groaned in a much more frustrated voice. Two dots of purple light shone through the darkness. It streaked and blurred as it was accompanied by a red muzzle flashes. The lights return to reveal that all of the bandits are dead on the ground. Sasha and Rhys now stood before the group.

"Did you miss me?" Rhys asked coyly. Fionna smiled as she replied.

"Eh take ya' or leave ya',"

"Heh-heh. Oh well," He put his arm around Sasha's shoulders. He turns to the new guys. "Hey there my name's Rhys. I knew that Lyme had put out an ad, but I didn't expect someone to respond to it so soon if at all. Gotts say you guys go here just in time," Rhys started as he and the others continued non to the end of the tunnels. "I trust that Fionna has talked about me,"

"You wish," Fionna laughed as the former salary man typed the entrance code into the heavy blast proof door, which slid open to reveal a futuristic interior with blue lights and interactive monitors everywhere.

"Welcome to compound Nexus. Around a year ago Sasha, Fionna, Vaughn, Cassius, Janey, Athena, Loader bot, and I opened the fourth vault on Pandora, the vault of the traveler, and rescued Gortys in the process. Of course this would be problematic seeing as how we're on Pandora. It couldn't be helped that every god forsaken planet got the same idea to try to take the vault for themselves and then charge people to leave the planet, or leave the planet yourself. Neither of which are good. So the children of Helios worked with the raiders to secure it and make the compound. Then Dahl stepped in and super charged it as you can see," Rhys explained as he led the others to a freight elevator which descended to the second lowest level of the compound. "Vaughn is probably down here preparing for his appointment in Fyrestone," They stepped outside and into a chamber tucked away in a corner where Vaughn was hanging from a bar on the ceiling doing crunches.

"Fifty," He finished before dropping to the ground "Hey guys it's been a while,"

"Hi Vaughn," Fionna chimed.

"The hard drive please?" She took the metal box out of her back pack and handed it to the master of numbers. He took it examining it closely. "A raccoon model. Good but it could be better." Vaughn walked over to his work bench and started whistling the globetrotter's theme song. "A wire here a code here. Hey Rhys help me out here?"

"On it," He chimed sitting down next to the Ex- accountant. "Did you find the encryption code?"

"Yeah. Did you get through the fire wall?

"Half way."

"Then save some for me, don't try to hog it all to yourself!"

Meanwhile with the others standing behind the two master hackers.

"What the Hell I am I looking at?" Tex asked rhetorically.

"Why don't you focus on translating the binary?!" The two continued to argue over who got what.

"I have no idea," was Sasha's honest answer. Church looked at Smokey who was trying his damndest to stifle his laughter.

"What's so funny?" he swordsman asked knowing full well that he wouldn't like the answer.

"Hahahaha. They're double teaming it," He replied in a hushed tone so that only the people next to him could hear him. Axton snickered alongside him, Gaige rolled her eyes in disgust, Church sighed through his nose, and Tex punched him in the arm **really** hard.

"And," Vaughn trailed, plugging a cord into the usb port on his computer. "We're in," Vaughn said with a distinctive flare of satisfaction.

"What's in it?" Lilith demanded.

"It's a….

(A/N: Damn it! Why are you doing this to Tina Author person! A mother humping cliff hanger are you kidding me! Just to find out what's in the mother humping hard drive!)


	15. Their Move

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands (EAT IT LAWYERS!)

(A/N: Helloooooooooo guys. I have absolutely nothing to say to any of you right now. Gooodbyyyyye guys!

The survivor and the fighter: I haven't even scratched the surface. You'll see, and you are gonna like it!)

 **Chapter 15: Their move**

"It's…," Vaughn started but stopped with a sincerely confused expression on his face. He didn't know what he was expecting to find, but this definitely wasn't it. "It's the activation cade for a cloak wall,"

"Cloak wall?" Axton repeated as an invitation for explanation. Vaughn nodded.

"It's like a holographic green screen that simulates what an environment would look like if the object it was cloaking was never there in the first place.

"Well what is it cloaking?" It was now Maya's turn to ask the questions.

"It doesn't say," was Rhys' response.

"Can we find it?" Lilith asked a little pissed off at the thought of going through yet another raid without any leads. Vaughn considered her question for a moment.

"A cloak wall needs to be connected to a satellite camera so that the hologram it projects matches the rest of the environment. I can triangulate the signal, but I would need one hell of a tracer. A bigger hell of one than I have at the moment,"

"Hold on a minute," Axton put a finger up as he pressed his contact button. "Patricia?"

"Yes?" The eccentric scientist answered in a static like voice.

"Do you have a tracer that would be strong enough to receive a signal from space?"

"Oh let's see, I had one around here somewhere where did I put it, Oh that's right I kept it….in the back room of HQ."

"Which is back at Sanctuary hole, great. Thanks Tannis,"

"No problem, oh and if you could bring me any limbs that you happen to shoot of during your escapades I would greatly appreciate it greatly. I hear that Zed is offering great prices these days,"

"Sure,"

"Thank you," Axton ended the call.

"Nothing's ever easy," Axton mumbled in frustration pinching the brim of his nose all the while.

"Well if it's the worse thing to happen today-"Lilith was interrupted by an alarm accompanied blaring red lights. "DAMN IT!" She yelled over the alarms.

"Krikey! What's going on up topside?!" Ace asked, the red lights filling him to the brim with anxiety. Vaughn got to his computer.

"We're under attack! Activating security protocols! Everyone get up there, they need our help!"

The twenty fighters got antsy when the elevator refused to go as fast as they wanted to. The second the mobile platform reached the ground level they raced back through the monitor room trying to ignore the bursts of sparks flying in their faces. They continued to sprint out the door and through the tunnel. What they saw shocked all of the new guys but Tex who had clearly been on this planet longer. A ginormous beast resembling a skag trotted around with Rakk swarming all around it as more crawled out of various orifices in its flesh. The beast had the S&S logo draped over its sides.

"Oh come on, not one of these things again!" Rhys shouted, the unpleasant memories of his last encounter with a Rakk hive flooding back to him.

"What is this thing?!" Church shouted while trying to run out from under the giant's foot.

"It's a Rakk Hive!" Tex answered now even gladder that she had left Brice at home.

"How do we kill it?!" Smokey was the next one to yell.

"Shoot it!" Was the only answer that Lilith knew for sure. Ace had climbed up the face of a cliff far away from the attack, so that he could focus. He had tried to use his tamer's song, but he couldn't concentrate enough in the chaos of battle. There he tried once again to use tamer's song, but to no avail; the messages that the Rakk Hive was sending were too strong for him to take over. He pulled out his Dahl prototype an assault rifle that overclocks its element modifier when specific areas of the body are hit. If he scored a critical hit the bullet would turn into an explosive round upon impact. He steadied his shot and aimed for the left eye which he had of course hit. The beast became disoriented, and for a moment Ace could feel it's control on the Rakk loosen, but not for long enough to go through with his plan. Finally he turned on his echo.

"Blokes! Listen I need somebody to blind it!"

"Why?!" Lilith asked in the midst of battle with the obscenely large beast.

"If you blind it It'll panic and be to disoriented to command the rakk,"

"Yeah, so the rakk will just kill us on their own accord," Retorted Axton.

"Just trust me, Mates!" He shouted into his echo recorder. Zero and Church had seen no other shortcut to the beasts downfall other what Ace had planned. It was either shoot it until it died or listen to someone who sounded like he knew what he was doing' there was no harm in either choice. Zero used his kunai to scale the rakk hive's front right leg. Church used his sword to do the same with the left leg. Once on its shoulders the two swordsmen plunged their blades into its eyes, bringing it to permanent blindness. After which they both jumped down, receiving no fall damage due to the low gravity of the planet. The beast swayed aimlessly and howled in pain as the rakk became unorganized and simply started circling the sight to see how all of this would pan out. Little did the bat like creatures know that they were the key to defeating their own master. Ace closed his eyes and crossed his legs under him concentrating as much as he could. He opened his mouth and sang smoothly. The Tamer's song as the rakk reorganized to form solid streams of mass that twirled around in the air. They poured into the Hive's eyes burrowed through its brain and then out its nose, rendering the monster dead as it made its slow descent to the cold hard ground below it. The soldiers and automatic defense turrets shot down the surviving rakk before Axton called on the echo.

"What the hell was that?" Axton asked in a calm yet astonished tone.

"The power of my people, mate; the dreamtime. With it we enter the world between our world and the dream world granting us invisibility, manipulation of animals, and even hypnosis, but of course everything has its limits. One wrong note could turn the animals against you. What happened to the rakk hive could have just as easily been me. Now if I'm correct we a tracer to find come on, mates" Ace called trying to change the subject. Though he was proud to have his ancestor's blood in him it was something that he had taken a whole lot of shit for before.


	16. A Bad Part Of The Board

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: Hey guys I just wanted to say that writing chapters is gonna take a bit longer from now on as I have officially run out of pre-written story so from this point on I'll be typing off the top of my head.

St4te of gr4ce: In a sense, but I would hate to ruin the surprise.)

 **Chapter 16: A bad part of the board**

Ace hopped down the rocky incline that he had found for himself only to be choke slammed into the rocks by a clawed hand. The ozzie struggled for breath against the force that strangled him like a noose. Tex stood above him with her grip gradually increasing. Her eyes spoke of rage as they pierced Ace's soul.

"What did you?!" She spoke calmly, but with astounding anger in her voice. Ace tried his best, but could not push his words past Tex's grip. Just as he was approaching the brink of unconsciousness Church barreled into the were-skag and pinned her to the ground. Ace took in a raspy breath before coughing from his windpipe trying to bend itself back into its original shape. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?" She shouted while struggling against the muscle bound swordsman on top of her.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Ace asked having caught his breath.

"OH I'M SURE IT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE THAT THE SECOND YOU START SINGIMG YOU'RE LITTLE SONG THAT I TURN INTO MY FULL FORM AND FREAK THE HELL OUT! I ALMOST KILLED ONE OF OUR OWN SOLDIERS! AND YOU WHY DIDN'T ANY OF YOU HELP!?"

"OH I'm sorry we were just busy fighting a ten ton monster!" Smokey spat impatiently; lighting the cigarette in his mouth to relieve the stress.

"I'm sorry. My songs don't usually work on people; I didn't think that you would be an exception." Ace tried to reply as calmly as he could. She had good reason to do what she did, but he was still a bit sore from his near death experience both figuratively and literally as was made apparent by the almost instant bruises that lined his neck. Tex took a deep breath; she had almost killed this man. This man that was supposed to be a part of her team; needless to say she felt like just about the biggest asshole on this side of the planet.

"Okay you can let me up now," She spoke in a soft voice that appeared to be devoid of anger.

"Can I?" Church asked rhetorically. "How do I know that you won't get right back up and try to kill one of us again? Give me one reason that I shouldn't kill you right now," Church delivered his ultimatum as he raised his blade over his head.

"Don't make threats that you don't plan to follow through on, mate," Ace intervened. "Let her up," Church relented and got off of the young women, but he kept an eye out for any pretext of an attack. Tex nervously faced the man that she had wrongfully assaulted.

"I'm sorry," Was all that she said. Ace could tell that she meant it. Ace massaged his neck 'She really did have a good reason.'

"Don't sweat it, mate-"Ace was cut off when he and his five teammates were enveloped in blue light. The exited through the other side into the crater left behind by Sanctuary. They all looked to Lilith.

"Sorry but you guys were taking forever, and we ain't got all day. I'm always one for mushy stuff though so be sure to carry on later if you want I'll make popcorn," Lilith ended her teasing as she turned around to a familiar face. "Michael!" Lilith gasped as Michael Demile and the rest of his group (O'cantler, Sam, And Lindy) were just now exiting the bandit camp. All of generations one and two turned their heads at the mention of the name and rushed over to where the old friend was.

"Hey guys, long time no see."

"Dude we thought you were dead," Gaige chimed jovially as she patted his back affectionately. "Where have you been?"

"Ooh I'm glad you asked, you're looking at the newest member of the road signs. He said motioning to the three behind him.

"Oh 'are thanks again for shooting Jim in the back of the head for us, ladey." O'cantler said turning to Axton.

"No problem. The dickwad had it coming,"

"What brings you guys here anyway?" Michael asked.

"There is something in here that we need to find," Lilith said.

"Alright, just be careful. As you can see more organized bandits had moved in ever since the last time you came here," Michael explained as he pointed to the sign above his head that said "Hell Whole". "They are ex-rippers lead by this guy named Heacliff, but you know that's old news. What I'm talking about is this guy we saw while we were here; he didn't look like a bandit, but he was talking to some of them while he wrote in this blank book the whole time. Some of the bandits tried to kill him, but they were dead in a flash, so be on the lookout,"

"Alright, nice seeing you again drop by anytime."

"Yeah you to, and just for old time's sake eeny-meeny-miney-you," He pointed to Tex who he then gave a Maliwan pistol.

"Whoa, thanks." Tex said as she admired the heavily customized gun.

"Be careful with that. I had a gunsmith by the name of Gr4ce rig it to shoot white phosphorus rounds. So when they burn they burn until they die. Thing is though that the phosphorus sometimes dissipates before impact so don't count on it," The road signs waved goodbye as they carried on to the fast travel. Lilith, Axton, Gaige, Church, Smokey, Tex, Violette, Ace, and Saphyre carried on to find the triangulator and bring it back to Vaughn and Tannis while the others had returned to their usual posts in case S&S or the bandits tried anything.

The vault hunters found the tracer in no time at all thanks to the fact that it was a tracer that never turned off and had a ten year power cell. It led them right to itself. On the way back though they came across two lone people up ahead; A bandit and another man that constantly walked circles around him while writing in a book.

"This must be the guy that Michael was talking about," Axton whispered to his team. No one moved and decided to watch the outcome of this. Neither of them noticed the vault hunters as the man continued his questioning.

"And would you describe yourself surly?" The man asked as he continued to walk circles around the bandit.

"I don't know, man. Look are you gonna give me your money or not because if you're not I prefer not to waste my time," The bandit said casually as he lifted his Tediore pistol in the man's direction. The man sighed through his nose as he closed his book, grabbed the bandit's arm and pulled him close, and then he planted the fountain pen that he had been writing with into the back of the bandit's skull, letting the bandit fall dead he wiped the blood from his writing instrument and placed back in his pocket. Another bandit almost immediately appeared out of nowhere.

"What's your name noooo!" He cried as he began shooting at the mysterious man.

"Shit!" In a panic he picked up the bandit's pistol rather than pulling out his own, but the bandit must have had one of those antique Tediores because the second that he pulled the trigger it exploded in his hand, and knocked the man unconscious.

"Well, I guess we should help him?" Lilith said as more of a question than a statement. Axton pulled out his sniper rifle and killed the bandit in a headshot. The vault hunters walk closer to the man for further examination. He had long brown hair, green eyes covered by thick glasses, four fingers on his left hand, six fingers on his right, drees shoes, and a bashe trench coat that covered his shirt and pants that had the word script in cursive stitched onto the left side of the chest.

"Let's bring him back and have Zed take a look," Axton recommended. Church being the biggest one through the comatose man over his shoulder. An echo device fell out of his pocket and started playing. Everyone stopped and listened.

" _Personal log entry three. I have found a way to finally make my mark and escape my fear of oblivion. Athazgoraphobia is not an easy obstacle to overcome, but I do believe that I have found a way to escape it permanently get out of my way through my writing. If I were to write a biography of my ventures while pursuing the vault I'm sure to be revered and remembered throughout millennia. I have been on Panora for a week trying to fight my way to Sanctuary where the alliance is based. Once there I will ask the commander to give me a contract so that I will not be committing suicide by walking into a bandit camp alone anymore. This is Vincent signing off."_ The recording stopped playing and left shocked vault hunters behind.

"Holy Shit," Lilith cursed they had just found a seventh vault hunter.

(A/N: Boom what! Bet you didn't see that coming. Now please review.)


	17. Another New Peice

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: Helooo again guys Luca here bringing ya' some awesome borderlands 3 predictions. For those of you who read my story, but don't review I freaking blew you're mind when I brought Vincent in didn't I?

The survivor and the fighter: Already ahead of you. There's a reason I gave Smokey scars on his back, a reason that Saphyre wakes up drenched in sweat, and a reason that church ran off Promithia as fast as he could.

St4te of Gr4ce: That was part of the plot, but I know what you mean.)

 **Chapter 17: Another new piece**

Vincent woke up a few hours later in an unfamiliar setting; he remembered the last thing that had happened before that Tediore pistol backfired on him. Now panicking he sat up fast, now noticing that he was in a bed which was in a painfully colorless room. In front of him sat four people who he recognized from the news and ad that had brought him here. On the left side sat Lilith the leader of the crimson raiders and of gen 1. On the right side was Axton co-leader of the crimson Raiders and of gen 2. One seat in from the left sat Athena the most competent survivor of gen 1.5. And finally one seat in from the right sat Commander Lyme leader of the black edge assault battalion. Vincent steeled himself as he began to speak.

"I take it I made it to my objective," He observed. "I also take it that you listened to my log," He inferred noticing the lack of weight against his chest. They nodded. "Well, what do you say," Vincent spoke calmly and coldly with crippling logic.

"We can ask you questions, but this is a lot quicker," said Axton as the Eridian fades out of invisibility before yet another vault hunter. Without uttering a word he pulled the Logan's gun out of his coat with the sight on the alien except unlike the first four to arrive he pulled the trigger three times as fast as he could. The Eridian's telekinetic powers contained the resulting explosions. Vincent evaluated the situation looking like he was about to attack again.

"Please don't do what you're about to do," Athena asked coldly.

"His reflexes are amazing, his personality is calm and calculating, his skills are impressive, he understands the necessity of S&S's eradication, and he works well with others. He will suffice," The voice echoed in Vincent's head.

"A guardian; I've read about you,"

"We'll fill you in on the details later, but right now we have some business to attend to, and from this point forward it looks like we includes you," The four stood up and the Eridian disappeared. Vincent swung his legs over the side of the bed and followed the more seasoned vault hunters through the city to the first floor in HQ where Vaugh, Rhys, and Tannis worked together to locate the cloak wall. The other vault hunters who had arrived both long an a little before him greeted him and filled him in on their current course of action. The scribe just kept nodding as he wrote furiously in his book. Rhys was the first one to make and advance as he typed at sixty words a minute on the monitor hooked up to the tracer.

"I've got something," Rhys called over his shoulder. The other three tech savvy alliance members rushed from their computers to his. The screen depicted five markers representing where the signal was being received. The signal led to three horns valley in between the bandit stronghold and the bridge that led to the Dust. The first two markers were on land but the rest went out into the water making the shape of an obelisk what was inside the wall was very large. "There it is, there's your cloak wall,"

"Proceed accordingly, but be careful there is no telling what actually is in there after all," Lyme ordered (not that it was necessary). The vault hunters were almost instantly out the door. Finally finding a lead boosted their moral. The fast travel system put them in front of the happy pig motel which remained an abandoned, worn down, rat hole. The group approached where their echoes said that the land anchored receivers was. Axton walked right up to the limit until his echo said that he couldn't go any farther then cautiously reached out his hand expecting it to face right through it, but was instead rewarded with a painful shock.

"Ow! Son-of-a-bitch!" The commando yelped as he cradled his hand. "What the hell?" Rhys walked up to where Axton stood.

"Hmmm. The cloak wall must double as an electro field like the ones we see in bandit camps and S&S settlements," the ex-salary man evaluated.

"Well unlike bandits S&S is probably smart enough to put their switch on the inside. Our best bet is to get some explosives and-," Maya was cut off when all of their echo devices turned on.

"DID SOMEBODY SAY EXPLOSIONS!?" Mr. Torgue drops from the sky with no means of getting there in sight, and hits the ground with an astounding shockwave that collapsed the left pillar of the cloak wall making the whole illusion fade away. (An entrance befitting for the Chuck Norris of Borderlands.) All of the women rolled their eyes at the loud man even though he had just saved them a couple hours by getting Tina for help while the men whooped and cheered at the display of sheer badassery.

"How on earth did you do that?" Church asked astonished by the strange man. He simply pulled a device off his belt and held it in front of him.

"I PRESENT TO YOU THE REVERSE SPKE SHIELD THE FIRST NEW PRODUCT I'VE DESIGHNED SSINCE RIPPING WHITES ARMS OFF AND STEALING THE DEED TO MY TECHNOLOGY BACK! WHILE A SPIKE SHIELD DEALS DAMGE TO THOSE WHO PUNCH YOU THE REVERSE SPIKE SHIELD DEALS BONUS EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE WHEN YOU PUCH SOMONE! THE HARDER YOU HIT THE BIGGER THE EXPLOSION! HERE!" Torgue tossed one of the models to Brick who almost immediately equipped it in excitement. The gang now looked past the Brick sized man at what he had uncovered. There right next to the blood shot stronghold was a long bridge that led a city in the middle of the water. A sign above the entrance to the bridge read ' _welcome to Sin Sity'_ . Where alarms had sirens had started to wail incessantly.

"So our leads lead us to another lead. Leadception," Brick commented as the others prepared to fight a literal city of nothing but S's.

"Come on guys rip em' up," Axton cheered as he sprinted down the bridge with the others hot on his tail.

(A/N: Fun fact all of my characters are extensions of myself Church is my spirituality, morality, and compassion. Smokey is my sexuality, vulgarity, and cynical sides. Ace is my insecurity and friendliness. Tex is my explosive anger and paternal nature. And Vincent is my fear and need to create.)


	18. King Me! Oh Wait That's Checkers!

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands. (In Russia borderlands owns you)

(A/N: Welcome to Sin Sity! Get it S&S, sin sity; I am a comic genius! So anyways yesterday I reached a total of twenty reviews; exactly two more reviews than I have chapters. If any of you guys out there are reading this please don't forget to review. It takes half a minute, doesn't cost anything and makes me smile:). I also have some great news; the guys and I finally got our first gig. That's right, Anaerobic Watermelon will be playing at Kings Square Pennsylvania tonight at nine!

No one has reviewed chapter 17 yet because the system messed up and said that I updated on the fifth when I actually did it on the sixth so no one has received their notifications yet. Speaking of chapter 17, the city in the water is actually there in the second game. If you go to the top of the Bloodshot Ramparts and look over the right side you'll see a white and blue city with a bridge leading to the area between the Ramparts and the Dust; and no it is not Opportunity. I know because if you look over to the left side of the Ramparts you'll see the real Opportunity.)

 **Chapter 18: King me! Oh wait that's checkers!**

This was nothing like the attack on Hollow Point. At Hollow Point the forces were much less and more spread out, but here you couldn't take two steps without running into another S. The gunfire had corralled the vault hunters into a tightly knit group that was constantly taking and returning gunfire. Axton was leading them in the same strategy that they had used while in Opportunity and moved in an organized grid formation through the city. As of right now Lilith, Brick, Axton, Maya, Gaige, Krieg, Zero, Athena, Claptrap, Rhys, Vaughn, Fionna, Sasha, Church, Smokey, Tex, Vincent, Violette, and Saphyre were pinned behind each other as cover and someone always needed revived. Ace and Mordecai once again were providing sniper fire from faraway places. Ace had his set up on the abandoned bloodshot ramparts and Mordecai was at Doc Mercy's old place. Turrets constantly shot at the attackers, robots ripped S' to shred left and right, blade after blade after blade pierced flesh, Fire spread amongst the human catalysts, and there was a constant stream of explosives coming from one vault hunter or another and who was fairing pretty well. Even with all of this, hundreds of soldiers still flowed from every direction. Finally Axton swallowed his pride.

"Lyme there's too many of them; if you don't get here soon this will have all been for nothing!" He shouted into the device.

"On my way," the stoic voice sounded on the other end. A particularly large group of S' came up on the team. Vincent took what looked like a storage deck out of his jacket and tossed it into the group which then went up in a burst of electricity, cryo, fire, acid, shockwaves, and shrapnel. This weeded the group down to a more manageable size. Shield after shield broke, and vault hunter after vault hunter went down. Just when Axton finally went down while trying to revive Salvador a new hand reached out to him. He looked up to Lyme who had a smug smile on her face. He returned the smirk as he took her hand. Once he was back up he looked around to see alliance soldiers reviving his team mates. The carrier that had dropped them off continued to circle the city as automated guns shot at the S'. With the reinforcements at full strength the S' numbers had thinned in the alliances favor; all that was left were straggling platoons that attempted to flee the base. Once the vault hunters finally got some time to catch their breath and take a break from the constant sting of bullets penetrating their flesh and bouncing off their shields. Axton took a deep breath and looked over to Lyme who nodded. He nodded back as a sign of respect and thanks. Just then, right when the vault hunters had let their guards down, their echoes turned on with Ace's voice pouring through.

"FUCK!...FAIR SUCK OF THE SALV, WHAT ARE YOU!?...now hold on we can talk about this!" Ace screamed as he struggled against something before a gunshot sounded and the transmission turned to static. Axton pressed his contact button.

"Ace! Ace, come in Ace!" He shouted into the device, but there was no answer, soon everyone stated to try and contact him, but no one succeeded.

Alarms went off and warning lights blared as five glass people sized tubes popped through small ports that opened up in the metal floor. A shock round broke through the glass hitting Axton square in the chest. It cut through his shield instantly as the electrified tendrils seeped into the commando's skin. He collapsed to the ground with his eyes closed and no hint of waking up any time soon. A strange creature stepped out of the glass tube as others followed. The creature looked like a guardian except it could not levitate and had a gun for a left arm. Two of these creatures stepped forward, followed by three of the big guys that Lilith fought back at Hollow Point. The group ran with Brick carrying Axton on his back. Lyme's echo turned on.

"Commander we are under attack by….fuck I don't know what the hell these things are! They're almost invincible and their guns are practically one-shoter's! There's normal humans, but we've tried everything! Fire, corrosive, shock nothing works! We're going to die!" A soldier cried. Lyme had enough.

"Get a hold of yourselves! " She shouted. Lilith took over.

"These things are like guardians their shields are really tough, but once you break them their actual bodies are really weak! As for the big guys, I fought one of them before, I don't know what their deal is, but it seems as though they only take damage from non-elemental rounds! Pull yourselves together or you will die!" She ended the transmission. "Brick get Axton to safety! We'll stay here and hold them off!" Everyone but Brick stopped and turned around. "Alright guys remember shock for the guardians, and regular for the big guys."

Brick kept on running and would not stop. He felt Axton's shallow breath on the back of his neck, so at least he knew that he was okay for now. He laid the comatose commando(Hey that would be a great name for a band) down on the grass outside of the city and waited for this all to be over, even though he really wanted to punch one of those things into oblivion. He let out a heavy sigh as he heard the gunfire in the distance.

"This was a good night; don't you think?" He asked the sleeping gunslinger not expecting a reaction.

(A/N: Oh Haiii and welcome to the final installment of Tina's badass corner with our special guest, the man himself, Vincent. Tell us a little about yourself Vincey.

Sure, I am a part of the scribe class. My action skill is called enchiridion, which is a device that I customized to symbolize my favorite books with the ability/damage/status effect that it deals. I also have the book of the end skill, which allows me to reflect half of all damage back at the dealer when my shield is depleted; so I may go down, but I'm taking him with me.

And that is why Vincent is a badass. It's been fun yall!)


	19. A King Cut In Twine Can Still Be Mended

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands.

(A/N: Hey again. I know it's been a while since the last time I updated, but School has been kicking my ass! I encourage any of you guys to try and come up with a better action skill for Vincent as the current one sucks and I could not come up with a better one.

St4te of Gr4ce: Thanks for the heads up all errors have been corrected.

The survivor and the fighter: Then try to come up with one of your own it can't possibly be any worse.)

 **Chapter 19: A king cut in twine can still be mended**

The battle was finally over; after hours and hours of non-stop shooting the alliance had won and took Sin Sity. Some of the vault hunters had walked outside of the city where Axton was being lifted onto a stretcher by two Dahl soldiers who carried him away from the battle ground. In the absence of the constant gunfire Violette had almost forgotten about their missing teammate.

"Ace," She called into her echo. "Ace!" She called a bit louder hoping with all of her being that he would answer. "Ace!" She flat out shouted as a few tears rolled down her face.

"Gore blimey what is it, mate," She heard a distinctively accented voice call from behind her. She along with all vault hunters present turned to see their Australian sniper with blood running out of the corner of his mouth, tattered clothes, and a dead retro guardian on his slung over his shoulder. He limped over to the rest of his team and threw the inhuman creature on the ground in front of them. A trench knife jutted from its chest plate. "Can someone please explain to me what in God's graces this thing is?!"

"Come find us and we might be able to find out for you," Rhys said over the echo. He and Vaughn had gone scavenging for information almost immediately after they determined that it was safe.

"Trust me you all want to see this. Lyme you should come as well," Vaughn spoke this time. Violette pressed her contact button.

"We're on our way," The separate generations walked towards their echo designated objective at different paces. Ace idly tossed a grenade up into the air and let fall back down into his hand as he walked. The grenade mod caught Smokey's eye.

"What model is that?" The Sadist asked.

"The alien looking bloke dropped it when he died. I tested it out and it's like an amplified singularity grenade; except that rather than pulling things to that specific place it actually sucks them in. Like for real one minute it there the next minute it gone; a portable black hole, mate". They made it to the secluded chamber with nothing but a large computer and twenty CPU's.

"Guys check this out," Rhys called everyone over. They all gathered around the monitor where the two computer geniuses had a couple of images up. They looked like blueprints almost for the retro guardians and enhanced soldiers that they had fought earlier in the night. "They made these guys," Vaughn clarified in case it wasn't already clear. "And look it has a code attached to it, and map leading us to the keypad to where we're supposed to type it in,"

"Well then what are we waiting for! Come on," Brick took off in hopes of compensating for the action that he had missed out on when he had to take care of Axton. The rest followed the berserker to the point that they had put into their echo's. Once they reached the waypoint they were confused, for they saw now keypad. Everyone had spread out to find it; it wouldn't have been the first time that a waypoint was a bit off. Meanwhile Saphyre had been staring at an out of place notch in the synthetic ground that covered Sin Sity much like Opportunity before it. Finally after her curiosity had gotten the better of her she resolved to inspect it. She put her finger into the shallow opening and then quickly drew back out; accidently opening a small hatch in the process.

"Incubator key pad exposed please enter clearance code," a synthetic voice played over the loud speakers, as the vault hunters turned their attention to the maniac. A pedestal with a key pad on it rose from the floor.

"Alright Saphyre!" Violette cheered as she patted her on the back. Vaughn took the stage as he typed the code in

"Let's see 61419991142003." He recited as he typed making sure not to type in the wrong code as that may lead to auto turrets digistructing and killing them or something along those lines.

"Aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnd open!" all eyes shot to Claptrap in annoyance. "Sorry heh-heh force of habit," The ground itself opened up and formed a stair case that led underneath the base. The new guys were the first to walk down and the others followed from there. What they saw shocked them. The glass tubes that had popped through the ground had come from here, and here in this room they stretched as far as the eye could see. Lyme let out a deep sigh and pressed the contact button on her echo.

"Lyme to control points, come in control points." Several voices answered at once. "I've just found something big. Write this down six, one, four, one, nine, nine, nine, one, one, four, two, zero, zero, three. Take that code and type it into every keypad in the base. Contact me when something happens,"

"Yes ma'am," they all answered at once.

"This is freaking insane." Church plainly stated in an awestricken state.

"Come on, we should head home, and get some specimens for Tannis,"

Back at HQ Tannis analyzed the retro guardian that Ace had killed. "Hm. It's just as I thought," confirmed the scientist.

"What do you mean?" Lyme asked intently. She lifted up its left arm up.

"This is the 10101 cannon the Eridian weapon. It's the same for all of the other retro guardians. I have concluded that S&S was responsible for the disappearance of the Eridian weapons on Pandora, and used a unique combination and stem cells and Eridium to bioengineer the weapons into living things,"

"Dear god," Mordecai gasped.

"As for the enhanced soldiers they're clones. Again they used a combination of stem cells and Eridium to mass produce these clones of sorts. I'm sorry, but that's all that I have at the moment. I'll notify you when I come across something else," The others left the room, but Ace stayed behind.

"Hey Doc?"

"Yes,"

"I'd hate to bother you, but could you work on getting that knife out of that bugger's chest for me? It's just that it means a lot to me and I've tried darn near everything to get it out myself," Patricia looked up at him with a smile.

"I'll see what I can do, Ace,"

"Thanks," Ace waved as he walked out the door. Tannis looked back down to her work.

"Now let's have some fun why don't we,"


	20. Intermission

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: Alright twenty chapters in. One month since it all began. I think it's time for a recap; Claptrap would you do the honors?

"You've got it Lukey. A little less than a year ago S&S resurfaced on Pandora, and took over the recently abandoned Hyperion settlements as well as made a few of their own. Their attentions were made clear when they busted into Grounded Sanctuary and stole the vault key that had been By used by Steele and then later Handsome Jack. After it became clear that the vault hunters and Raiders alone could not combat S&S they made an alliance with Dahl, the children of Helios, and the slab to make the allied forces or as it is more commonly referred to as the alliance. Almost one month ago four new vault hunters who had answered an advertisement sponsored by the alliance arrived at sanctuary. After their introduction to future warfare a Dahl sniper named Ace was involuntarily forced to join as the fifth vault hunter, though he didn't seem to mind very much. The new addition's first mission was to liberate the town of Hollow Point, which was a huge success by the way. During our mission we acquired our sixth Vault hunter; a red neck, were-skag lady named Tex. While there we found an S&s computer that was sure to hold some valuable information. To decipher the info we needed a little help from the second newest additions Rhys, Vaughn, Fionna, and Sasha for some help. My robot buddies Loader and Gortys are a part of the team too but they were off on a side mission at the time. Anyway the information we found on the hard drive told us that we could find another lead by using a tracer to triangulate signals. Unfortunately for them the closest tracer was in the bandit camp called Hell Hole; this where the vault hunters met there soon to be seventh new addition, Vincent as the scribe. After Vincent recovered, the team used their newly acquired tracer to track the satellite's signal. The signal led them to the S&S stronghold of Sin Sity. Once there they discovered that S&S had stolen very Eridian weapon on the planet and turned them into these living weapons called retro guardians. One of them shot Axton who is now currently in a coma because of it. The guys aren't taking this to well; right now the alliance is using the information that they got from the computers in Sin Sity to make a safe course of action so that they can figure out what to do and how much time they have to do it….. But lately…I don't know I've just had this feeling, a bad premonition. Something's coming; something big, but on Pandora one doesn't really need a intuition to predict that," Claptrap finally finished.

Sorry if this pissed you off. But I just figured that…you know it's my twentieth chapter and you know how in anime one of the episodes will just be a narrator recapping the story thus far. I thought it was appropriate so try not to hate me too much.


	21. Move Timer

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hello again guys! So yeah no one reviewed the last chapter, not that I'm surprised or anything I mean what were you guys supposed to review right? I'm a tad bit….extremely excited because of the new story that Garfield413 is working on! Even if you don't like her which is fine that's your opinion that's fine, but it does not change the fact that she is by far the greatest author on this site! And all of you should go check out her work rather than waste your time on this garbage. That said let's move on to the garbage.)

 **Chapter 21: move timer**

The next morning generation three walked through Tannis' lab and up into the map room as the message they received on their echoes instructed them. As they walked in they noticed that everyone was already there. This didn't surprise them; this place was home for most of them anyway. Tannis stood at the doorway of the balcony.

"Everyone here? Good," She pressed a button on her emote that made all of the screens in the map room show the same image. Everyone looked to the holographic projection on the table in the center of the room which showed a spinning three dimensional image of one of the retro guardians. "According to my analysis and the information found in the Sin Sity computers each retro guardian is an Eridian weapon that has been augmented with stem cells and Eridium to turn it into a body then programmed with a directive, combat skills, and the ability to follow orders,"

"Wait a second, how can you program a living thing?" Maya asked only because others couldn't first.

"The brain of a retro guardian is sort of like an organic computer. In the year two thousand and twelve Earth scientists made the world's first organic motherboard out of a cockroach's nerve system and stem cells. From there the practice could have expanded into a wide array of uses if the government hadn't forced it underground and destroyed almost all of the evidence that it ever existed for moral reasons. At the time those primitive scientists thought that they had opened Pandora's Box," Explained Tannis.

"Well they sort of did, didn't they?" Church interjected.

"I'm not going into a conversation about ethics right now. My point is that Ace your abilities aren't going to affect them. By analyzing the enhanced soldier's brains I have evaluated that they function in the same way, but have their own advantages. They see in infrared so Lilith be careful, elemental rounds don't affect them with the exception of explosive so I suggest getting a Torgue or Jakobs, They have ridiculous strength though not as much as Krieg or Brick over here, and last of all they are regenerative. If you do not put a bullet right through its brain it will eventually heal and come back after you."

"So what you're saying is that we need to kill an army of monsters, great," Smokey groaned. "I bet they don't even scream too,"

"Shut up, Smokey," Church said in a rather low and annoyed tone.

"Thank you Church. Next up I do believe that I have found out how S&S have been charging the vault key," A small dot glowed in red on the left side of the image of the retro guardian's chest. "This is the charge core that's in every Eridian weapon. It allows the weapon to charge up the energy to fire a certain amount of shots before it must recharge. My hypothesis is that they are harvesting the energy given off by the charge cores to charge the vault key,"

"So how long do we have until the key is fully charged?" Lyme asked a tinge of urgency in her voice.

"I took the liberty of doing the math last night," She pressed another button on her remote and page after page of numbers appeared on the screens. The vault hunters tried to comprehend the advanced calculus for about five seconds before asking the eccentric scientist to translate for them. She let out a frustrated sigh "Three months. We have three months before the vault key is fully charged and the end begins," The vault hunters let it sink in. They had all fought on a deadline before; for Elpis, for Pandora, for their freedom, for a friend, but never had they thought that the universe would rest on their shoulders. In less than three months either the universe would either be saved or ended, all of which depended on every decision that they made. Another situation like Sin Sity and that could be the end of it all. The new members of the alliance were taken aback at this realization. Violette's expression turned to one of mortal fear, Smokey's turned to one of indifference, Ace's face also showed hints of fear for his life, Vincent's fear was that he would die before he could finish his book and be forgotten, Saphyre just grinned insanely as usual, and Tex seemed a bit pissed off though it didn't stop her from feeding Brice treats for being good while she was on her missions.

"Now that that's out of the way we also found schematics and maps for the base that S&S has built around the vault of dynasties," Tannis said this like it was nothing, but to the rest of the room's occupants it was a cause for elation. They had finally done it; they found what they needed to make an actual plan. No more pointless raids on S&S control points and no more grinding away aimlessly at S's. They could take some time to regroup their forces and make a plan and once they won the Eridians would be free and would kill all the S's left alive. Finally they could rest.

"OH GOD THEY'RE KILLING US! IF ANYONE IS HEARING THIS SEND HELP! SEND HELP!" Everyone was dragged out of there pondering by the eruption of screaming and gunshots from the echoes. Lyme immediately put her echo up to her mouth.

"This is control point Sanctuary to control point Badlands; what is your status?!" Silence

"Come in control point Badlands!" She shouted again. Static followed after. "Shit!" She yelled as she through her echo onto the ground. "It looks like we have a new problem on our hands. Church, Smokey, Ace, Vincent, Violette, Saphyre, Tex, Athena, and Claptrap go investigate. The rest of us will stay here and look after the place," They nodded in agreement as they walked out the door.

"Do you think it's S&S or bandits?" Violette asked not looking forward to what was to come.'

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling that it's neither," Claptrap said in an uneasy tone.

(A/N: You know what my writing's not garbage. For real it's gonna get really good. Like RVB was good seasons 1-5, but season 6 was when it got really good.)


	22. Three Way Chess

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hey again guys. Don't worry the story isn't close to its end, it's just getting good. I'm fairly certain that I'll even have to do a chapter forty recap, though I'm not sure if I'll make to chapter sixty.

St4te of Gr4ce: Not quite yet, buddy.

Enjoy everyone!)

 **Chapter 22: Three way chess**

The team of nine vault hunters stepped away from the fast-travel and into the arid badlands where the alliance had converted the Hyperion Eridium refinery and info stockade into another one of their control points. From there they could see the enormous space ship the sat stationary next to the Eridium refinery. The word solace was printed across the hull of the ship in a jagged font.

"Damn it! We're too late," Athena stated in anger.

"How do you know?" Violette asked not wanting to take the chance of leaving someone behind.

"Trust me, if there's one thing I know its war. We were sent here to investigate and that's what we're going to do. We need to get inside without being noticed," Athena said aloud even though the others were already aware of this.

"Got any ideas?" Church asked.

"A couple, follow me," The rest of the group sprinted behind Athena to one of the valve pressure controls that was close by. Sure enough there was a group of twelve men. They hid behind a rather large rock as Athena's eyes widened in realization. These men were wearing miss matching uniforms. There were crimson lance, Hyperion personnel, bandits, scavs, and lost legion survivors the only similarity being that the solid parts of their gear (helmets, pads, etc.) were spray painted blue and gray. "I knew at least some of them would be here," Athena whispered.

"So?" Smokey asked impatiently as he let out a large plume of smoke from his mouth.

"So we can kill them, take their uniforms, and sneak on board. Now could you please be quitter and put that damn thing out? You're going to give away our position!" She whisper yelled at the obstinate sadist. When he responded with nothing more than a defiant glare she snatched from his lips and stubbed it out in the dirt, to which he growled.

"So what's the plan, should I snipe them?" Ace suggested his skill set.

"No. These guys are organized; the second one of them drops dead the rest will call it in immediately. You can't shoot them fast enough,"

"So I guess that means blitzing them is out of the question as well," Violette confirmed.

"Got it," Tex spoke up as she started stripping in front of the other vault hunters without care. Church looked away instantly and Ace took some time do to the shock of the situation. But the others just kept looking. Athena starred with a slight blush before looking away while remembering her wife; Smokey didn't even have the decency to blush as her watched with a wicked grin, Claptrap was a robot, Saphyre was insane, and Violette was a straight woman so…big whoop. "If they think they're just being attacked by animals they won't alert the others, they knew that there were skags around her before they landed. I'll distract them and while they're shooting at me you guys pick them off," She explained as she let her last article of clothing drop to the dusty ground. With a deep breath inward she transformed to the were-skag that they all remembered as the only one that they didn't have to kill. She pounced out from behind the rock and knocked one of the soldiers over. They all let their lead fingers drop on the triggers of their rifles, but she wouldn't stay still long enough for them to get a shot on her shied. Once they opened fire Ace started sniping at them with the sounds from his rifle mixing in with the others. They were all so caught up in the chaos caused by the were-skag that no one noticed the disappearing gunslingers until there was only one left. Tex crouched on all fours in front of the last standing soldier as he looked around at his dead comrades. Weighing his options against the large blood thirsty animal he ran as fast as he possibly could; big mistake! Running pray was the most exciting thing in Tex's eyes and she pounced upon him, quickly ending his life with a well-placed swipe of her dominant paw. Everyone left their cover to retrieve a disguise that would best fit them. Tex ran back to the cover where she left her clothes and transformed back.

"You'd best stay over there. You had an excuse before, but if sneak a peek at me again we're gonna play my special kind of hang man. Where For every time you look at me I bite one of your limbs off," She said with authority, but without venom.

"Do we get to pick which one?" Smokey quipped as he sorted through the bodies to find a disguise that would suit him.

"That's strike one little man, just keep talking,"

"You'd better hush puppy before I have to tame you," he said in the most seductive tone that he could muster with his raspy voice.

"Pft," She rolled her eyes as she stepped out from behind the rock to take her disguise. Athena now wore a crimson lance suit, Church used a Hyperion engineer rig though it felt clunky against him, Violette used a lost legion get up, Saphyre used a bandit outfit, Ace also used a Hyperion outfit, Vincent also used a crimson lance uniform, Tex found herself a bandit outfit as well, and Claptrap happened to find a can of paint on one of the bodies and used it to paint himself. Smokey was the last one without an alternate set of clothes.

"Small problem; none of these fit me. How am I supposed to get in?" Smokey asked in a concerned voice. Claptrap was the first one to speak up.

"My sensors indicate a small ventilation duct on the hull of the ship that you would be able to fit through," The robot replied with uncharacteristic logic.

"Works for me," Athena shrugged as the gang started towards their objective.

"Hold up second guys! You aren't really gonna force me into that tight little air duct are you?!" He asked nervously as he kept pace with the others.

"Sure are," Athena replied.

"But I have claustrophobia," Smokey admitted begrudgingly in hopes of getting him out of this situation.

"Too bad," Tex state vindictively.

"Tough luck, mate," Ace said through laughter.

"Sorry, I can relate," Vincent consoled, having his own phobia to deal with.

The team arrived at the ship where Church boosted his partner up in the duct work.

"I can't believe I'm doing this!" He screamed to his teammates below.

"Take deep breaths and focus on your goal," Vincent said giving the sadist his sympathy. He mumbled something vulgar as he inched the rest of the way through the portal. The rest of the group carried on to the ship's entrance.

"Alright act natural, but keep an eye out, we may be walking right into a hornet's nest,"

(A/N: Hello again; I know it's been a while since my last update, but I've been having some family issues. So don't hate me too much.)


	23. The Black The White And The Red

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: Hello again everybody! I am happy to announce that I have twenty five reviews and seven hundred thirty six views…..by chapter 22…..oh well beggars can't be choosers. I have about eight or nine people reading my story which is good enough for me, considering that I would have written this for myself anyway. Just a heads up; these next couple of chapters are going to get pretty deep…so let's dive into them why don't we!

St4te of Gr4ce: Thank you and I fixed it.)

 **Chapter 23: the black, the white, and the red?**

Church pressed the buzzer on the intercom next to the door. A camera in the top right corner of the automatic set of doors adjusted to look at the group.

"Ah team six, we've been expecting you," A voice sounded from the intercom before a short pause. "Where are your other four men?" the voice inquired. Athena cleared her throat before answering with the straightest face possible.

"They're dead, sir. Skags attacked."

"Damn it thought I heard gunshots; I should have done something!"

"Well what can you expect on a planet like this," Vincent interjected.

"Yes I suppose you have a point there. Hold on a sec, I'm letting you in," He said before the air tight gate slowly ascended.

"We'll split up into groups of two; Claptrap you come with me," Athena waved directing the robot to follow. On split second decisions with little consideration the rest of them paired up; Church with Tex, Ace with Vincent, and Violette with Saphyre. Athena and claptrap were the first ones to pick a clear path to inspect. They walked down the metallic halls of the space worthy vessel dodging the constant flow of faceless grunts.

"In a spaceship surrounded by remorseless murderers; sort of reminds me of Helios, you know before the whole blowing up thing that it did," Claptrap conversed in his usual comical manner.

"Yes, I agree," responded the gladiatrix. Claptrap sighed.

"Can I get a response that has more than three words in it?"

"No," She replied sternly as they hooked the turn on their left.

"Come on lighten up a little, it's not like all of these guys are going to collect in one place and rip us limb from limb," He joked as they entered a mess hall with literally thousands of solace soldiers. Athena shot him a smug look while he pretended to whistle even though it was just a recording of someone else doing it. She saw an exit on the opposite side of the large room.

"Keep walking, we can't gather any information here," She instructed as she casually walked in a straight line through the collaboration of volatiles. Claptrap followed behind her, but a familiar face out of the corner of his optical sensor stopped him in his tracks. Right Across from him was a silver finished robot in the shape of a woman, with a silken kimono serving drinks to the men. A spark ignited in his long term memory.

"Sereena!" He called out as he wheeled over to the geisha bot. She turned in the direction that she heard her name come from to see a familiar box like robot rushing to her.

"Claptrap!" She gasped in shock as she knelt down to his level and embraced him. "I thought you were dead!"

"I know right; isn't that weird!" He said in delight as he tightened his grip around her. He finally felt content; until some dickwad kicked him a few feet away.

"Step off ya' hunk of junk; I claimed this one already!" The man slurred drunkenly as he draped himself over the much smaller yet stronger geisha bot. Claptrap peeled himself from the ground and wheeled towards the man haughtily.

"Hey, bozo, somebody should tell your pants that it's rude to point!" his synthetic voice echoed through the mess hall, which subsequently broke out in thunderous laughter. The man growled angrily as he raised his Hyperion pistol at the robot.

"You little runt," he mumbled as he switched his safety off. "I'll show y-," he never got to finish having been interrupted by the handle of a Jakobs revolver connected with the back of his skull.

"Don't point guns at my friends," Athena mumbled coolly as the man dropped limply on the ground. No one else payed any mind to this, they knew he was drunk, and probably did something to deserve it. "Come on let's go she said casually as he strode towards the exit.

"Right, follow me Sereena,"

"Okay, thank you," She praised while following her newly reacquired lover and past acquaintance.

"Can't very well leave my only love behind, can I,"

"I thought it was the customs bot that you liked," Athena stated, looking for a response to cure her confusion.

"Oh, they're all the same," Sereena replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's kind of racist," she retorted bluntly.

"No she's serious. Project CL4p-tp wasn't just a product line but a form of software that functioned like a hive mind so that we could distribute crucial information in the blink of an eye. I was as much customs bot as customs bot was me,"

"Makes sense I suppose," She said, stopping at a directory of the ship. She put her finger on a specific area. "Carbon copy stockade, jackpot," She carried on through the ship with purpose, leaving the two automatons to trail behind her.

Smokey crawled through the ventilation system of the solace carrier. His breathing was erratic and sweat seeped from every inch of his skin. Of course at the moment where it was what he wanted to happen least, he remembered the cause of his fear of tight spaces. Suddenly the metal rectangle had become a wooden box and he could not move. He heard the familiar sound of countless people chatting quietly to each other. To his surprise the front of the crate was pried away and he was blinded by the show light that illuminated the stage that he was on. A strong hand reached into his temporary prison and used the ropes binding him to very forcefully pull him out. The crowd before him all wore blank masks and very formal clothes.

"I have here a young man, no older than seventeen. Judging from his muscles he is very athletic, and his jet black hair and eyes show a sign of promise. Shall we tart the bidding at three hundred thousand?" The auctioneer called out as it hit Smokey all at once what was happening to him.

'I'm being sold?! And telling from how they're all dressed up this isn't going to be the kind of slavery they teach you about in school!' He let a tear of fear roll down his cheek before steeling himself and trying to remember how he got here. 'The last thing I remember is…..being dragged away from my house, damn it I was kidnapped!' The price for his subjugation rose and rose until finally a young woman in a ruby red cocktail dress raised her number panel.

"Nine hundred and fifty thousand for the boy!" She called out. No one dared to challenge her bid. He was promptly shoved off the stage into a waiting chloroformed rag. Was again he was forced into the darkness. When he awoke he was lying against a cobblestone wall, his shirt had been stolen from his torso, and thin but lengthy chains connected the leather straps on his wrists and neck to the wall. The young woman who had bought him knelt in front of him, just out of reach.

"Hi there," She greeted in a sing song voice as her miss matched eyes gleamed in the darkness. "My name's Jacky, though you can call me mistress. Don't bother telling me your name it won't matter pretty soon," He glared at her from the wall. "You're a bit younger than I'd prefer, but when I saw you on the stage I saw something in your eyes. A fiery determination; I just wanted to be there when it was extinguished," His glare evolved into a growl as his anger grew. She got up and headed towards the door which he couldn't even see from his half of the room. "Sleep tight, you're going to need the energy for tomorrow," And with that she shut the door behind her. His surroundings changed again having cycled through to the cold metal interior once again.

"But she never could, not even after two years. I still fought, and I ain't about to let a stupid fear of small spaces beat me!" He shouted as he charged onwards through the vents.

(A/N: I warned you. Everyone has their darker times it's just that some are darker than others.)


	24. UmChess Reference!

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: Back again guys! Last time you got a look into Ray Nathaniel Smoker's past. I just thought that I should clarify that Smokey is only a nickname given to him by Church. In addition Church is his last names used as a nickname do to its uncanny accuracy; his full name is Zackery Church (No middle name).

The Survivor and The Fighter: Don't we all? You're right everyone has their demons; it's just that he wears his on his sleeves.

St4te of Gr4ce: If this wasn't that dark for you I don't know what to say. I have to keep this at a T rating after all

Jack Hunter: Welcome to the club man

Thewhitepatch: Thanks for your support

LarrySA: Thank you for the opportunity, but this story isn't long enough yet.)

 **Chapter 24: Uhm…..CHESS REFERENCE!**

Violette and Saphyre found themselves in enemy territory, with no idea where they were or where they were going, and under very sensitive cover none the less. Frankly it scared the hell out of the young engineer.

'What if Saphyre does something crazy and gets us captured? Killed apparently wouldn't be too bad, we'll just respawn back in Sanctuary. Note to self; kill myself before I am captured; Scratch that, kill Saphyre first then myself.' Now that Violette had planned three steps head as she always did, she could focus on other things like her insane companion. She looked to her left and was shocked at how stable she was behaving. Her face was covered by the bag like mask that most bandits wore and was recognized as such. She wasn't singing any needlessly violent songs, she was returning nods, she was even walked in a normal stride rather than her usual cares free skip. This confused Violette; had one of her medications actually worked for a change, was this sheer luck of the draw, or was she capable of competent behavior all this time? She could not tell, but thanked god for it all the same. She found a directory on the wall, and opted to use it rather than just wandering aimlessly.

"Let's see," Violette trailed as observed the extensive map of the ship.

"HANDS OFF MY MEAT HAUNCHES!" Violette heard behind from her.

'Dear God, no' She turned around to see Saphyre pinned against a wall by three men. Someone had bumped into Saphyre while Violette wasn't watching; usually this would have been no big deal, but with a response like the one the maniac gave, the ex-bandits easily recognized psychotic behavior. They ripped her mask off just to reveal a second one underneath. One of the bandits let out a hardy sigh.

"Psychopath; She must have played dress up with a spare outfit. I'll take her to the ward, one of you should file a report," He ordered as he walked away with the smaller woman in a bear hug. Violette walked alongside the man.

"Sir there really is no need for this; she was with me all day and didn't pose a single threat," She spoke cheerfully even though she was screaming inside.

"Look kid, I've worked with a ton of these guys. One minute they seem perfectly peaceful, the next minute they're ripping the intestines out of a corpse and trying their damndest to make them into lamb skin condoms. It's a risk that the man up top isn't willing to take," while all of this was happening Saphyre hadn't tried to struggle once.

'Don't fight back, these men will kill you if they feel like they have to, and when they see your body fade into nothingness they'll know that you're entered in the alliance new-u system. It all goes to shit from there; just enjoy the ride' The man stood in front of a control panel and let it scan his retinas, causing the gate next to it to open. Violette grabbed his arm.

"Please," She pleaded solemnly.

"Sorry, kid. It's nothing personal," He through Saphyre through the gate where there must've been hundreds of other Psychos, each one screamed his own creed. Saphyre shot a pleading look back to her best friend right before the door slammed shut. "It's just business," and with that the man walked away. Violette pressed herself against the bars of the gate where Saphyre stood trying to find some way to get out.

"Saph, look at me. I'm going to get you out of this. I'm going to think of something; no matter what I'm not leaving you behind. Please nod if you understand me," Saphyre's face straightened, and she gave her best friend a meaningful nod. "I'm coming back for you," She called as she jogged to her previous objective. One of the areas on the directory had read _vault key charging center_ ; needless to say that this title intrigued her. Upon reaching the waypoint that she had set her echo to she found that Church and Tex were already almost there. "Hen guys," She greeted.

"Hey, so you saw the map too huh? Wait where's that concentrated ball of caffeine that's always clinging to you is?" Tex asked.

"She got captured. One of the soldiers found out that she was a little mentally damaged, and locked her up with all the other psychos," she explained reluctantly.

"Fuck…are they on to us?" Church asked in the quietest voice possible.

"No,"

"Good. We'll help you think of a plan, but we'll have to get her on the way out. They might catch onto us when we do it, so we should get our information first," Church evaluated rather impressively.

"Right," They came up on the door labeled _Vault key_ c _harging center_ .

"Just keep your cool, and follow my lead," Tex said as she walked through the automatic doors. Through those doors was a metallic gray and unrealistically clean room. In the middle of the room was Plexiglas cage with a little girl (who couldn't have been older than five) with tattoos down her left side. She held a vault key in her left hand and a bar of Eridium in her right. Her tattoos glowed through her white sundress as the bar of Eridium slowly disappeared. A man with a triple barrel shotgun across his lap sat in a wooden stool in front of the cage.

"Hey, buddy your shift's up. I'm here to take your place," Tex stated confidently.

"I've done nothing, but sit here with the kid day in and day out for five years. You're spies, who came here to take her and the vault key, aren't you?" And just like that all seemed lost.

"N-no! We're just new here, I'm sure this was just a miscommunication." Tex rambled before her echo cut her off.

"Hey guys I think I found the Ship's power core or something. Should I blow it up?" Smokey's voice called out on the device.

"Shit," Tex groaned as the guard stood up and cocked his shotgun.

(A/N: Hello everyone. Look I've hit a hard case of writers block so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up. I'll see you all later


	25. Insurgency

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: And here we are again everybody. So check it out, last chapter when I made the guard immediately jump to the spy conclusion and Made Smokey happen to call the gang almost immediately after. It wasn't lazy writing or anything, it was just supposed to be comical; you know like how everything went to shit in an instant. It also showed that the guard had good intuition, and trust me that's important for later on. And don't worry that's the last time I let Torgue do my title.

St4te of Gr4ce: Thanks for the advice, pal. I do remember reading somewhere that blue makes us more creative.

Guest: Thank you and I'll try my best to get these up quickly.)

 **Chapter 25: Insurgency**

Tex stared down the barrels of the Jakobs shotgun that would be the end of shield and probably even her at this range.

"Take us with you," The guard requested, throwing the three before him for a loop. The young siren let go of the vault key and Eridium and pressed her hands against the Plexiglas.

"Are you sure about this, Clint?" she lightly inquired.

"Sure as I'll ever be; look at these guys they came along right after we take one of the alliance bases. Logically speaking it makes the most sense that they would be alliance soldiers," He reasoned out loud before lowering his gun and shooting Violette a look. "Unless of course I'm wrong,"

"Why do you want to come with us?" Tex asked skeptically. She drew her smooth fox SMG showing her suspicions.

"Like I said Day in and day out for the last five years I have done nothing but guard this little girl. Who do you think taught her how to speak, or walk, or read? Who do you think fed her and cared for her? Do you think I want this for her?" Clint asked rhetorically.

"it's okay, Clint; this is the chance we've been waiting for," She called out from her indestructible prison.

"I know, Seras It's our lucky day," He called behind him.

"What's the plan then?" Tex asked

"We get the hell out of here. The second I open that cell door during an unscheduled time period an alarm will go off," Clint answered.

"It's not that simple; we have more people aboard and one of them is in the ward,"

"I have the clearance to get your friend out of there if he's still alive,"

"Alright, so We get Saphyre out of the ward, have everyone meet us here, and then fight our way out of the ship while the core melts down and destroys the whole ship," Violette stated aloud having finished her practice of thinking three steps ahead. She hit her contact button. "Smokey how much time does the countdown have on it?"

"Let's find out," He responded. Silence was interrupted by a synthetic voice that came over the loud speakers.

 _Teleken engine meltdown in T minus ten minutes; please evacuate in an orderly fashion to prevent bodily harm to those around you._

"About ten minutes," he responded a second time. Church whipped his echo off his belt and shouted into it at full volume.

"SMOKEY YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR ARMS OFF!" Smokey didn't respond.

"Change of plans everybody! Clint grab the kid and the key," She activates her echo. "Everyone get to the nearest exit this ship's gonna blow,"

Clint opened the door to Seras' cage, and put the vault key in his pack, and handed Seras a pangolian shield. Normally this would've activated an alarm, but since it was already screeching do to the meltdown, so no one noticed a difference.

"Alright kid this it, I'm going to put you on my back and I need you to hang on as tight as you can, Okay?" He said with his hands already on her sides.

"Clint I'm scared," She whimpered. He looked into the little girl's teary eyes with confidence. If he would panic the kid would too.

"I know, sweetheart, but trust me we'll make it out of here just fine. Just close your eyes and hang on tight," She gave him a trusting nod as he placed the little girl on his back, and took the lead. "Come on, the ward is this way!" He said as he and the others ran through the door. Along the way Vincent and Ace joined them and ran alongside the otters.

"We didn't even get to do anything, mates!" Ace complained through strained breathing. Smokey joined too.

"You fucking idiot!" Violette started to yell at the shirtless sadist.

"Yeah, yeah put it on a post card!" He responded as he kept running. The process wasn't easy since everyone else on the ship was panicking and running towards the exit as people took shots at them for trying to steal the siren; though most just wanted to get out of there. They came up on the ward. Clint let the machine scan his eye and the door opened. Right then and there Saphyre flung herself from the thresh hold and onto Violette much like a dog would do. A group of solace soldiers came around the corner.

"They're stealing the siren! Open fire!" One of them shouted.

"Saphyre we need to go!" Violette panicked trying to move with her friend still wrapped around her.

"FREEDOM!" one of the psychos bellowed as he and the remaining content of the ward flooded the halls and ran towards the soldiers granting the vault hunters a chance to escape. Athena was the one to join as they ran through the halls.

"What took you so long?!" Tex inquired over the alarms.

"Had some business to attend to," She answered stoically as she flashed a thumb drive in-between her thumb and forefinger.

Upon reaching the door that they had entered through, they found that it was closed. Why? Nobody knew.

"Claptrap can you integrate with the door and open it?" Athena asked.

"Hey come on dude my girlfriend's right here,"

 _Three minutes until teleken engine melt down_

"Now!" She screamed.

"Okay, okay" He drew a wire from his body and plugged it into the console. And with a plume of sparks and pained screams from Claptrap the door opened. "Ta-da" He said while panting even though he didn't have lungs. Everyone ran as fast as they could for two and a half minutes to escape the blast radius. When the ship finally exploded, the vault hunters watched in awe as the enormous vessel reduced itself to scrap as flames filled the sky.

"And boom goes the dynamite," Smokey joked./ Church just shot him a glare and punched him in the stomach; laughing as he doubled over in pain.

"I got their carbon copy archive. What did you guys get?" Athena asked.

"We found a siren and a vault key," Violette replied nonchalantly in hopes that it would make her sound cooler. Athena's jaw dropped as she pointed to the little girl who was now playing in the sand, and enjoying the sensation of something other than cold metal for once. Violette nodded in affirmation.

"She didn't mean anything, baby I swear," Claptrap pleaded with Sereena as she turned her back on him.

(A/N: Does this chapter suck? Feel like it sucks. What do you guys think?)


	26. A Pawn At The End Of The Board

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands.

(A/N: Hello again everyone, I'm back and ready to write. To stat off thank you all for your support in my story. Thirty-one reviews for twenty-five chapters is much better than other stories I've seen on this site. One of them had fifty chapters and only five reviews. That said I'm closing in on one thousand views total, so thanks for that as well guys.

St4te of Gr4ce: You're right that is what mister Torgue would say.

The survivor and the fighter: Thank you.)

 **Chapter 26: A pawn at the end of the board**

"Let me get this straight," Athena requested as she took a deep breath. "We went in there to investigate, and in the process of that you stole a siren and vault key to match and blew up the ship. Is that about right?" Athena asked, though Violette could not tell whether she was being rhetorical or not or if she was upset or not. She gathered up her courage in the face of the stone cold woman.

"Yes," She said with all the fake confidence in the world.

"Good work," She replied.

"Really?"

"Of course, you and your friends not only destroyed the threat's means of transportation, but also killed most of its militia and stole its means of opening the vault for itself! I'd say that was a pretty productive day's work," Little did any of them know that someone was watching them. From behind the sand dune he watched the vault hunters and heard most of their chatter echo through the otherwise silent area. He wore an original solace uniform like Clint's It was mostly black with gray trim; the uniform came with a matching gas mask that only covered the front of his face and apparently weapons judging from the sniper rifle that he currently had trained on Athena's head.

"Come on quit moving," He mumbled to himself. He took a deep breath in and held it. Just before he could tense up his trigger finger he felt a cold hard object held up to his jugulars.

"Put the gun down," Vincent commanded calmly. The Solace soldier let out a defeated sigh as he handed over his rifle. Vincent retracted his fountain pen and bound the man's hands together. "Hey look what I found," He called out as he pushed the survivor out from behind his cover.

"Nice job, we'll take him with us for questioning," The gladiatrix decided. "Alright let's get it together and roll out; we're gonna have to drive back to HQ with our guests," The gang nodded and headed down to the catch-a-ride system at the bridge to the Eridium Blight. Clint stroked his short red beard as he took in the fresh air, or at least it was fresh before the smoke from the explosion tainted it. He felt a slight tug on his free hand, and looked down at the source. Seras smiled up at him with his hand tightly held by hers and he couldn't help but smile back. He would have done anything for this little girl, because out of all the little girls in the universe this one was his. He took her hand and continued walking through the warm sand.

Vincent kept a tight grip on his prisoner's restraints with his right hand while he held the sniper rifle in his left. Ace looked over at the gun in the author's hand.

"Hey can I see that a moment, mate?" Ace asked. Without even looking up Vincent tossed the gun to Ace who just barley caught it. He looked down the sight and fired at a nearby boulder, but Instead of bullets it fired a violent burst of electricity; like a laser weapon, but in a concentrated ball instead of a beam. "Yes please!" He cheered as he put the gun in his pack.

The ride back to Sanctuary was pleasant especially for Seras. For the sheltered child this ride as chop full of new stimuli. She felt the wind blowing through her hair, it felt nice and even though the wind was cool it wasn't painfully cold, and the feeling of moving so fast gave her a tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach; it felt so good that she leaned over the bed of the technical and shouted to Smokey who was driving.

"Excuse me, mister Smokey, can you go a bit faster please?" The sadist just barley heard her over the engine.

"You've got yourself a speed demon Clint," He called back with the echo turned on for good measure. "Alright hold on to something!" He then sped up about fifteen miles per hour on top of the forty he was already going.

They put their vehicles back into the digistruct system and headed to the back of town to report back. The sun was just starting to set as they walked into the familiar building. Lyme had been waiting for them in the map room and was thrown for a loop when she saw the siren markings on the little girl accompanying them. After some explaining Lyme had calmed down; the thumb drive and vault key were now on the table.

"So now we only have to worry about the survivors?" the commander asked.

"Not quite," Clint said as he ran his hands through his ginger hair. "That was only one of their ships; there's still two more filled to the brim with more soldiers and scientists."

"But there were so many people on just one of them!" Smokey exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yeah and there were even more people willing to take the deal from Solace. All of the lost legion, lance men, Hyperion, and every bandit sane enough to sign their names. They came here to open a vault and they're going to do it with or without their siren and key,"

"Are you saying that we're going to have another ten thousand soldiers storming in here to take them back?" Salvador asked.

"No, they don't know that she or I survived the explosion, and an explosion like that would've destroyed the key. Even though they could probably guess that it was you guys who blew up the ship, they wouldn't risk those kinds of losses again so soon. What I'm saying is that they're probably going to form an alliance with S&S and use their key, and as much trouble as you've caused them recently they'll take the deal too,"

"Who leads them?" Lyme asked, not getting a good feeling from this conversation.

"A counsel of five, each party has chosen a representative to make decisions collectively," he replied.

"This could be trouble," She picked up her echo. "Mister Torgue?"

"YES!?" He responded in his usual manner.

"How would you like to join the alliance?"

"DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO ASK!?"

"Welcome aboard," She thanked as she shut off her echo. "That's it for now; get some rest I'll notify when we get our prisoner to crack,"

"Let me stop you right there, I'll take of our little guest," Smokey spoke in a low tone.

"If you wish, just don't kill him. He's down the hall and to the right," Smokey practically sprinted out of the room as Church pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Come on guys, believe me you don't won't to hear what's about to happen next," And with that the vault hunters dispersed. On her way out Seras stared up into the sky where the sun hung low on the horizon, and the blue was replaced with impossibly beautiful shades of pink and red.

"It's pretty isn't it?" Clint asked, looking down at the small child. She just nodded her head and stopped walking. "Just you wait until it goes the rest of the way down, sweetheart,"

(A/N: Yeah this chapter was pretty slow, but things will pick pretty soon and in a big way.)


	27. Take It All!

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: Here again everyone, how are you guys? I feel like I barley hear from you. Remember I'm taking suggestions, especially for Tina's badass corner. Just put down what you want them to talk about and a guest that you would wish to hear from as well.

St4te of Gr4ce: Thanks, I fixed it.

Xilefdestroy: Welcome aboard.)

 **Chapter 27: Take it all**

Smokey sat across from the prisoner at the interrogation table. He smiled and lit a cigarette as if he had all the time in the world. He let out a puff of smoke in the prisoner's direction.

"Why don't you take off the mask," The sadist requested in a relaxed tone.

"Why, so you can blow your smoke in my face," He retorted hastily. Smokey pulled up his digistruct menu and selected three items before dispelling it. A full bottle of scotch and two tumbler glasses appeared in front of him.

"No, because you can't drink with the mask on, big guy," He replied as he filled the two glasses and slid one across the table to the prisoner. He stared at the drink for a solitary moment before taking his mask off to reveal a bald or shaved head covered in jagged scars as well as a dead eye. He picked the drink up and stared at it with scrutiny, then at his captor with the same scrutiny. "Bottoms up," He said before downing the glass in one gulp.

"Thanks," The prisoner said as he took a sip from the drink. "But it's gonna take a whole lot more than a drink or two to get me to talk."

"Boy I sure hope so," Smokey said with a chuckle. "So, you got a name?" The prisoner leaned back in his chair and attempted to cross his arms before the handcuffs stopped him; he the resolved to rest his hands behind his head.

"The name's Victor,"

"Nice name, mine's Ray. Ray Nathaniel Smoker," He said drawing out the space between each word.

"I don't recall asking," again Victor responded hastily.

"Oh I know, I just wanted to make sure you knew my name so that you had something to scream out."

Ace was waiting in the door way when he heard the screams. He had to fight against his imagination to keep from envisioning what was happening in that room right up the stairs. Tannis had told him to wait here while she got something. He was very excited, apparently she had gotten his knife out a little while ago, and she would've given it to him this morning but then they got the distress call from the badlands. She hurried into the room with a cloth bundle held firmly in her right hand.

"I am pleased to inform you that after dissecting the retro guardian, stripping the chest plate from the flesh, and going to extreme measures to break said chest plate I have retrieved your knife; with a slight difference," She said that last part under her breath.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he un-wrapped the knife to reveal a purple glowing blade. "Kroikey," He said awestruck.

"You see apparently when you stabbed the retro guardian you stabbed its charge core, and like petrified wood it took in its essence in a way. I haven't made complete sense of it yet, but I'm trying my best," Ace gave the blade an experimental poke, trying to see if it was hot or if it would burn him. "Careful!" She yelled. "The blade itself is harmless, but if you stab someone with it the Eridium like energy it gives off will poison them. On top of that…you know what go see for yourself," She pointed to a Dahl water barrel in the ally right outside HQ. "Go ahead thrust the knife at it," Ace was a little confused but shrugged it off; she was a scientist after all. He placed his left hand upon his right and used his fingers to make a sight and thrusted the blade at the barrel. A purple beam the exact width and thickness of the trench knife blade shot forward and pierced through the iron barrel, leaving it spewing its contents onto the ground. He looked down at his knife and smiled sinisterly. "As impressed as I'm sure you are with my work, I must remind you that this weapon is now irradiated and will poison you if so much as prick yourself with it. If you do prick or cut yourself you must amputate the extremity or limb as fast as you can."

"Why can't I just off myself?"

"Because there is a high chance that you will simply respawn with the radiation, which will continue to worsen until it kills you, and then you'll respond and it'll kill you again in a never ending cycle," She said in her usual exposition voice. Needless to say the map of events that was just laid out before the Aussie sounded extremely unpleasant, and he carefully sheathed his newly reborn knife.

"Thanks for your help Dr. Tannis."

"You're most welcome." She said while going back behind her desk. He walked out quietly so that he could take the commander's advice and get some sleep.

Smokey pressed the record button on his echo a second time to stop the function on his most versatile device. Across from him Victor sat slumped over in his chair. Blood leaked from his mouth, ears, eyes, and nose. Every breath he took was shaky and ragged. He could no longer move, having gone numb from the pain long ago. Smokey stubbed out his cigarette and smiled once again.

"The alliance thanks you for your donation," He said as he swiped his echo off the table and walked out the door. Lyme was there to meet him.

"Were you successful?" She asked.

"Check your echo," Ashe did so and saw a newly sent log from the man standing across from her. "This is sort of what I do for living anyway." He finished while walking away. He stepped out into the cool night air. Everyone was asleep or in Moxxi's, getting loaded, which was what he was thinking about doing at the moment. Suddenly his peace and quiet was ripped away from him by the thunderous roar of gunshots in the distance. He lit yet another cigarette with a fresh shark grin plastered across his face. "Those are fun sounds," He said forebodingly as he began his walk to the catch-a-ride system outside Overlook. Once there he spawned himself a light runner and drove off in the directions he heard the shots come from; he could track gunshots from a mile away, which was convenient because that seemed to be the case. On his way there he felt a lot of bumps, which was weird because he didn't see anything in front of him he just smiled as he shook the notion off, he was driving off road after all. Upon reaching his destination h found to his disappointment that everyone was dead. The sadist hopped out of his vehicle to inspect the corpses of the long gone bandits; one of which had an echo log next to it. He pressed the play button. Whoever was on the other side of the recording was breathing strenuously and his sentences were segmented by his panting.

"… _.I had to kill O'Reilly today…..I just didn't know what to do…..that bastard killed Sandra and mike right in front of me! …..He kept spouting some nonsense about worm people…Jerk off got a few rounds in me too….Please if anyone finds this…"_

"Oh great an errand," he mumbled before the dying man continued.

" _Tell my sister that I won't be coming home today,"_ The log ended. For the longest time Smokey stayed silent; his smile quickly ran from his face at the last of the request.

"Your sister huh, alright, Deadman it's your lucky day. You've probably found the only person on this planet who would have taken your request, but I'm taking your gun too," He said while pocketing the heavy revolver and picking up echo. "But if your sister's address ain't in here, I'm giving up you got that?" Silence ensued as the sadist froze in realization that he was talking to a dead man. "Shit!"

(A/N: In case you didn't get what I was trying to do while Smokey was driving. The joke was that he was running over stalkers.)


	28. Take It All! part 2: Please?

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: hello again everybody let's get this next chapter out and done with so that I can finally get 1000 views. I'm telling you this is gonna be the one.

S4te of Gr4ce: No. No he didn't. Thank you.

The survivor and the Fighter: Thank you.)

 **Chapter 28: Take it all! Pt.2 please?**

Lyme walked into the Dahl infirmary where reclined behind his desk.

"Hey, Zed how's the new place treating you?" She asked cheerfully. The back ally doctor put his feet on the ground and replied with equal cheeriness and the addition of his usual southern twang.

"Great, the lights don't flicker, it doesn't reek of bile, and yesterday I cut myself on something and I don't have tetanus."

"Good, good. Hey uh why don't you go uh take a break; I'll look after the place for you," She said nervously.

"Sure, thanks," He knew what was going on. "Try not to have too much fun with my patients," He joked while walking through the door. Lyme didn't pay that any mind. She walked down the row of empty beds, stopping at the one that supported Axton's unconscious body. She let out a frustrated sigh as she sat down in a chair beside the bed. She looked over to the night stand where his clothes and other personal items lie neatly folded. She saw his dog chain on top of his jacket, and immediately locked onto the ring that remained imprisoned by the chain. This brought up the same question as it did when she first saw him on Pandora.

"Why'd you do it?" She murmured to herself with tears threatening to show themselves. She was shocked out of her thought when she heard an all too familiar voice from beside her.

"Why did I do what?" Axton asked in a parched voice. Lyme looked over to him and gathered u her courage. It was time to end this game of cat and mouse.

"Why did keep my ring?" She asked confidently. Axton took his time answering this question.

"It just didn't feel right to try to forget you, Sarah," He said earnestly as if it were the last thing he would want to admit, but did anyway in hopes of maybe fixing things. "Why didn't you tell me that you didn't like diamonds?"

"I wasn't about to tell you while you were down on one knee. It didn't really matter any way." A deep silence settled upon the two soldiers.

"Why'd you leave me, Sarah? I understood that I had to go, but what I never got is why you left me too. Damnit Sarah I can't get you out of my head, I can't stop trying to think of what I did wrong!" He said, his voice gradually rising over the course of the sentence.

"Because I needed you to live!" she said, cutting him off. "Because I needed you to live, I needed you to leave, and I wanted you to forget me," She said forlornly.

"Why didn't you come with me?"

"Do you think that they would just let that go? If one commando runs away to one of the border planets they're not going to spend the time and resources to find him, but I'm the commander of the black edge assault battalion. If I went with you they would've found us they would've captured us and they would've hung me before a live audience, but not before killing you right in front of my face." Sarah said with those tears from before now slowly flowing down her cheeks.

"Sarah, I still love you," Sarah giggled at this, as if she had suddenly felt lighter than air.

"I still love you too, Axton," She took a deep breath in. "Which leads me to my next point. They abandoned us,"

"What?"

"They abandoned us, Axton. After I told them about Solace, about the retro guardians, about the super soldiers, about what was in the vault; they told me that they weren't coming back. Just like last time they're leaving us here and they don't care what we do." Under normal circumstances this would've been awful news, but for the two lovers this was a second chance to be together, and with this news Axton immediately sprung up from the bed and captured Sarah's mouth with his own, neither party showing any sign of stopping soon.

Smokey had followed the GPS to the address marked sis' place. Apparently Deadman's sister had found a home in one of the many abandoned living quarters of Oasis. Smokey dragged the body through three floors and two flights of stairs singing about his life all the while.

"I never noticed until I focused on everything you did, you said, you lit the fuse inside my head. Thank you for reminding me of why I'm sick inside, thank you for the venom did you think it would paralyze? These scars, I scratch, I tear, are there, under my skin where you've always been. Thank you for reminding me to sin with a grin!" He sang the piece of heavy metal. Thank God there was no one else in this building. The second echo at his side interrupted him.

 _You have reached your destination_.

Smokey looked at the door to his right and leaned the body against the wall. He knocked on the door which was answered by a woman who was no older than nineteen. She had red hair, freckles, and blue eyes. Unlike what any other person on the planet would do in her situation she smiled, which made it all the harder for him to speak. She had seen the body leaning against the wall, but Smokey had left the mask on so she didn't know what was happening right away. This was negated when the sadist simply pulled the second echo off his belt and pressed play. Neither of them said anything through the entirety of the audio log, and by the end of it she was standing stiff as a piece of wood with wide eyes. She wasn't crying, or trying to convince itself that this wasn't real, or anything; she was just in shock.

"I'm sorry," He said before silently walking away, leaving the young woman to her grieving. Smokey didn't want to see what came next, nor did he think that he could handle it. He stoically stepped outside and continued with his song. "Hang man standing on a twisted two by four, built your house but forgot to lock the door. Look left look right, but I'm behind you!"

(A/N: Sorry this chapter is shorter than usual. I have somewhere to be soon.)


	29. Take It All! Part 3: I'm Begging You!

Disclaimer: I don't own borderlands

(A/N: Hello everybody. Just a heads up I have started a new fanfiction and I will be devoting some time to that as well. If you're interested the new story is called Young and Fearless in the Steven Universe archive. That said, consider this the season finally; I will be taking a month long break to focus on my other story. Don't worry you probably won't miss me much; )

St4te of Gr4ce: You're welcome. Thank you, I'm fine. Yes.

Guest: Read with caution, buddy.)

 **Chapter 29: Take it all! Pt.3 I'm begging you**

Saphyre laid still, strapped tightly to a bed. Her wrists and ankles were raw from trying to shake out of her restraints and the smell of blood constantly filled her nostrils. It wouldn't have bothered her so much if it wasn't her own bodily fluids that stained the bed, the floors, and her skin. Her every breath was careful and slow as if each one could be her last. White salt crusted in the corners of her eyes; she had cried herself to dehydration, a problem that was currently being fixed by the IV in her arm. She tried her hardest to remember where she was and how she got here, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't bring her recollection from the shadows. It had been harder and harder to keep her thoughts straight with each passing day, and now she could barely even speak in coherent sentences anymore. Her eyelids suddenly felt like they weighed as much as she did, and she reluctantly let them lower to a close. A huge jolt shot through her body as her eyes shot open and her limbs convulsed uncontrollably. The young woman surveyed her area, taking in pained breaths all the while.

"We can't have you falling asleep during the procedure, can we," A tall man with a respiration mask and thick gray hair leaned into view from behind Saphyre. "Don't worry, 626 relax everything's gonna be okay. Dr. Blight's gonna make everything better heh-heh-heh ha-ha-ha-ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Saphyre shot up from under her covers, scared and gasping for breath. With the absence of an apparent threat or memory of one she calmed down.

'I woke up drenched in sweat again this morning, and now I know why.'

Sarah had sent a mission request to the vault hunters for the escort of Ellie to Sanctuary. Her fast travel had broken down and with both S&S and Solace around it was too dangerous for her to be out in the Dust by herself. A second request had been sent for the escort of "Tiny" Tina for the same reasons. Church, Smokey, Tex, and Zero opted to go to Ellie's; while Violette, Saphyre, Brick, Krieg, and Maya chose to go get Tina. The fast Travel closest to Tina's workshop was broken too; the explosive blond had ripped parts out of it to make a timer and detonator.

Church and the gang walked past Sin Sity, admiring how it seemed to just float on the ocean with the rising sun behind it. Zero remained vigil as always. He remembered every past battle that he fought on this very ground and he couldn't help but play them over in his head. A skag jumped out from behind a rock before letting out a warning howl, saying they were on its territory.

"Hey it's you friend Aren't you going to go say hi?" Smokey said to Tex mockingly.

"Fuck off ya' half-pint," was her almost immediate reaction.

"A team divided/ leaves much to be desired/ attend to your backs," Zero replied. It was unclear whether he was genuinely giving advice or if he just didn't want to put up with their bullshit right now. Once at Ellie's garage they noticed that the steel doors were lowered and Ellie and Kenny were nowhere in sight.

"This isn't right/ something here is wrong," Just then the doors were thrown open and dozens of Solace soldiers poured out onto the sand. They surrounded the vault hunters as everybody present loaded their weapons. Ellie was shown to be tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth and Kenny's dead body at her feet. Those idiots made a huge mistake; no one was holding a gun to the mechanic's head, leaving the vault hunters no reason not to fight. Zero disappeared as the others rained gunfire down on the collaboration of murderers. Smokey let himself get hit until half of his vitality meter was empty, then he rushed the crowd and let his laughter of agony skill take over, releasing 950 hit point's worth of damage through the radius of his attack. Tex tore through about twenty of them with her claws and fangs, letting the massive rush of adrenaline fuel her bloodlust. Church activated his action skill along with his shield of God skill, making him invincible for the duration of his blade and body mode. Now that the land troops were dwindling they were sending in the buzzards. Thee of the makeshift helicopters opened fire on their targets below. Tex transformed and leaped off the building, into the cab of the closest buzzard. She forced the pilot out and crashed it into the one beside her, jumping out at the last possible second and letting the wreckage fall and kill a few more soldiers.

"Hey, over here!" Zero called out as he jumped into the driver's seat of one of the two technicals that he spawned after freeing Ellie, who was in the back. Church jumped into the back as well, where Smokey and Tex jumped into the other. They gunned it for the bridge; from there they could use the fast travel at the happy pig motel. They made it about half way before the last buzzard fired rockets at the ground right behind the vehicles; the blast flung them forward and broke them apart. The bodies remained still, motionless as smoke flooded from the wreckage. The buzzard hovered a moment more to make sure that his job was done before flying off. Another moment later Church lifted his face from the sand and helped Smokey up. Zero appeared in front of Tex and helped her up as well. Church's heart sank as a question popped into his head.

"Where's Ellie?!" He practically shouted. He looked behind him and there with a muffler shoved through her abdomen laid Ellie Hodunk as she bled out. She smiled even though she knew she was dying and spoke through the blood that was constantly forcing its way up her esophagus.

"Tell my ma' I love her," She choked before letting her last breath flow calmly from between her lips. No one said a word. Church closed her eyes and stood back up; he started walking away with a grim look on his face and everyone else followed suit.

When they fast traveled back to Sanctuary the other team was still there.

"Hey, Slabs how'd it go?" Brick asked, before noticing that Ellie wasn't with them. Before anyone could ask where he was going Church stormed off in the direction of Moxxi's bar. He didn't know much about the people around here, but he did hear that Ellie was Moxxi's daughter; he just had to tell her. He walked in leaned over the bar, and softly told her everything that had just happened as well as how sorry he was that he couldn't save her.

"No, no you…did your best…excuse me for a moment," She said before walking into the back room. She pulled her echo off her hip and spoke with fire in her voice. "Wade are you there? No don't hang up! Is your sister with you too? Because…. I have a job for you two,"


	30. Fun Nights and Bloody Floors

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: IIIIII'm ba-ack! Good afternoon everybody and duck for cover because Blitz Craig is here. That's what I would say if I was a you tuber; my outro would be this is Blitz Craig telling you to keep calm and carry on. Completely irrelevant information aside I've returned with season two of Borderlands: God's Chessboard! It was rough a few people un-followed, but I got a new reader it seems. Thank you Kjpickering. In any case this is going to be a lot of fun to do. In these chapters is going to be stuff like DLC and fun side missions as well as filler missions. You know those story missions that don't really do anything. Even though these won't contribute that much to the plot I can assure you that I will try to the best extent of my abilities to make them action packed, humorous, and plane easy to enjoy. And with that here we go!)

 **Chapter 30: Fun Times and Bloody Floors**

It's been a month since Ellie's death with very little activity for the vault hunters. Just the usual bandits, stalkers, and threshers that got the courage to walk into town no real challenge for the vault hunters. Bored one morning the lot relocated to the gym to entertain themselves and keep their skills sharp. An awesome song came on the radio which played on the speakers that line the ceiling of the Dahl gym.

 _Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me .I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. She was looking. Kind of dumb, with her finger and her thumb In the shape of an 'L' on her forehead. Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming. Back to the rules and I hit the ground running._

Saphyre was on treadmill running at the highest speed it could go. This was no big deal for her though; most treadmills had a top speed of 25 mph. She was sweating, but only because she had been on there for so long and didn't bother to change into a cooler shirt.

 _Didn't make sense, not to live for fun, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb. So much to do, so much to see, so what's wrong with taking the back streets. You'll never know if you don't go; you'll never shine if you don't glow._

Smokey and Tex stared each other down from opposite sides of the boxing ring. They walked towards one another with their guards up. Smokey swung first, but Tex blocked it. Tex jabbed at his a couple of times one of which hit him right in the gut. He quickly recovered and right crossed her right in the face. This didn't even faze her as she landed a right jab on his nose; immediately making it bleed.

 _Hey now, you're an All Star, get your game on, go play. Hey now, you're a Rock Star, get the show on, get paid. And all that glitters is gold .Only shooting stars break the mold. It's a cool place and they say it gets colder. You're bundled up, now wait 'til you get older, but the meteor men beg to differ Judging by the hole in the satellite picture._

Church practiced his punches on a punching bag with Vincent standing behind it to keep it from swinging. This did little to fulfill its purpose as each time Church punched it knocked Vincent back a little bit as well. Church finally finished his last rep with the strongest punch he could muster. The back swung up to the ceiling it was bolted to and Vincent was forced backwards and through the dry wall behind him. Church looked around the bag at Vincent and struggled to stifle his laughs.

 _The ice we skate is getting pretty thin. The waters getting warm, so you might as well swim. My world's on fire how about yours? That's the way I like it and I never get bored. Hey now, you're an All Star, get your game on, go play. Hey now, you're a Rock Star, get the show on, get paid. All that glitters is gold. Only shooting stars break the mold._

Violette did a double flip followed by a swan dive off the high dive and into the training tank. She immediately sank to the bottom where she saw Ace hanging on to two diving bricks to keep him at the bottom so he could see how long he could hold his breath. She waved and he nodded back.

 _Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas. I need to get myself away from this place. I said, yep, what a concept. I could use a little fuel myself. And we could all use a little change._

The vault hunters approached the exit with towels around their shoulders whether it was for sweat or water. On the way out something caught Smokey's eye. On the bulletin board was a poster with all of Smokey's keywords on it. He jogged to catch up with his team mates.

"Hey guys get a look at this!" He called out excitedly. Everyone turned around to look at the poster, and Violette read aloud.

"Attention: do you want to fight, kill people, and get paid? Then it's your lucky day! Join the-"

"ULTRA MELE TOURNAMENT! BROUGHT TO YOU BY TORGUE! TORGUE WHEN GOD CLOSES A DORR WE BLOW IT THE F^&* UP! AS YOU'VE PROBABLY READ ON THE POSTER THIS IS A TOURNAMENT OF BLADES AND FISTS! THE WINNER WILL GET ONE POINT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS AND ALL THE TORGUE GUNS THEY CAN CARRY! THIS IS A FIGHT TO THE DEATH, IF YOU AREN'T IN THE NEW-U SYSTEM TOO BAD! YOU'VE ALREADY SIGNED OUR legal waver!" He said in a quitter voice as if he was embarrassed about it. ANYTHING TO ADD MOXXI?!" He shouted to Moxxi who sat next to him in the commentator's booth.

"Sure do, Sugar," She cooed over the cheers from the full arena in the crater. The definition of melee may be a bit unclear for some you folks out there. As far as this tournament is concerned melee means that you ain't pulling a trigger. Axton, Gaige I'm looking at you sweeties," She said with a wink.

"THHAT REMINDS ME! WE HAVE A NUMBER OF VAULT HUNTERS IN THE TOURNAMENT! OF COURSE ONCE ALL THE OTHER APPLICANTS FOUND OUT THEY BACKED OUT ALMOST INSTANTLY! THIS MEANS THAT THIS TOURNAMENT WILL ONLY CONSIST OF FIFTEEN PEOPLE! THIS KINDA SUCKS, BUT MEANS THAT THIS CERTAINLY WON'T BE BORING TO WATCH!"

"Now for our first match. It's the best sniper on this side of The Dust, Ace Spades! And the savior of Elpis, the Gladiatrix of many wiles, Athena!" Ace and Athena stepped out on to the arena at the same time. Ace gulped hardly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

'I just had to get her as my first fight! Great, this isn't going to go well for me' He thought to himself as e drew his new trench knife. Obviously he couldn't use the other one on a teammate.

"ON YOUR MARKS,"

'Her it comes' he thought nervously

"GET SET,"

'Here it comes'

"FIGHT!" Ace's lips pulled upwards in a smile

'Here I go' the determined thought rang through his head.

(A/N: That's right we're doing the tournament of metal and mettle. The best part is that you all get to decide who wins. Vote for your champion in the reviews, whoever gets the most votes wins. Also the reason only 15 of the vault hunters are participating is because it would take a really long time to write every fight that went on between them. Hell even with fifteen people it still a lot of fights. Have a nice evening and welcome back to the board.)


	31. Rook Vs Bishop

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hello St4te of Gr4ce. I would say everybody, but you are literally the only view the last chapter had from fourteen days ago. I'm writing this story for one person so excuse me if my inspiration gets a little perturbed. I have no reviews to respond to seeing as no one reviewed the last two chapters. This kind of hurts guys, seven people received notifications that chapter 30 was up. All you had to do was click on the link, but you gave up on this story. But anyways let's get back into the action; I've missed this story!)

 **Chapter 31: Rook vs Bishop**

Athena started the fight by throwing her shield at the sniper, who rolled out of the way of both the saw like metal disc and subsequent explosion. Three throwing knives shot from his sleeve as he skillfully sent the small blades flying in Athena's direction. She dodged two of them and blocked the third one with her sword. She hurled her shield at him a second time as she started to run towards him. He dodged just as easily as the first time but this time after he rolled out of the way Athena was in the air about to impale him with her sword. Ace scooched back just enough that the sword missed his treasures and embedded itself into the ground between his legs. He took the opportunity and landed a front kick right in her face. She reeled back, but kept focused; this is what she had been trained for, what she had lived for, the only thing she was really good at! She reestablished vicious eye contact with the surprisingly skilled sniper. He gripped his knife so tight that it hurt as he and the gladiator circled around each other. Ace moved first as he attempted to plunge his blade into his opponent's heart. As expected she accounted for this and put his arm in a lock, but before she could disarm him he pulled out a throwing knife and jammed it into her arm forcing her to let go. She swung wildly and violently; trying to cut him with her sword and bash him with her shield. He dodged impressively, only taking shallow nicks here and there. He went on the offensive and pushed his way to six inches right in front of her and landed three hard rights. A defensive front kick gave him his distance once more. He retaliated with a spin kick that landed right across her jaw followed by a step kick that forced a knot into her stomach. She caught his foot before it could retreat from her now bruised midsection. She whipped him onto the ground and got on top of him. She had him now, grappling was her specialty. Ace knew he was done for at this point and resolved for one more hit. He wound his arm back as far as he could in his restricted position and stabbed it into her side; the blind spot in her armor. She gritted her teeth and blood seeped from her mouth, but whether it was from the knife in her side or from the kicks she had taken to the face could not be determined. Her shield grew to its full form and she haymkaered it into his face. The next few milliseconds moved in slow motion for Ace as he watched certain death draw closer and closer with a satisfied smile on his face. The moment the shield broke his nose it exploded and sent his brains outward in a Rorschach test of blood. Athena stood up and the crowd went wild.

"LET ME JUST SAY THAT WAS AWESOME! DEAR GOD ALMIGHTY I THINK I'M WELL WITHIN MY RIGHTS TO SAY FATALITY!" Torgue shouted manically.

"I've gotta say for the long night we're going to have that sure was a great start," Moxxi cooed into the microphone. Athena looked down at Ace's body as it started to fade into blue light as did the knife in her side. She held her new wound and looked to where she had located Janey before the fight. Though she was far away her trained eyes made out the words "That's my wife!" and at that she couldn't help but smile as she walked towards the exit to join her.

Ace respawned back and Helena square with a blank look on his face. This was the first time he had ever died and he just needed to let it sink in. This was interrupted by the fast travel/ new-u system. _Dahl wishes to remind you that by using the respawn station you have forfeited your right to reproduce_

"Awwww," Ace groaned dejectedly as he turned around and typed in the coordinates for the crater.

The vault hunters sat together in the same two rows of the stadium with a few missing here and there. They all cheered for the amazing fight except for Church who sat quietly with his arms crossed. Smokey elbowed him in the side.

"Come on you kill joy lighten up this is great," He coaxed.

"The best part of this is that I have nothing to do with it," Church responded which intern made Smokey snicker much to his more upright friend's dismay.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" He chortled. Church gritted his teeth and glared at the sadist beside him.

"What did you do?" Church asked with anger clear in his voice. Smokey only snickered more as he answered.

"I entered you dude, forged your signature and everything!" At this point the shirtless man burst out laughing. Church relaxed a little.

"That's fine I'll just withdraw," The swordsman said confidently and Smokey laughed even harder.

"You can't the legal waver says you can't withdraw without paying the penalty fee!"

"How much is it?" Church groaned in grief.

"Way more than your poor ass has,"

"ALRIGHT ALL YOU MOTHERF*CKERS ITS TIME FOR THE NEXT FIGHT. UP NEXT IS THE KING OF SLABS, THE RED MIST MAKER, THE SECOND STRONGEST MAN ON THE PLANET, GIVE HIM A HAND OR HE'LL TAKE ONE, BRICK THE BERSERKER!"

"Going up against him is the commando with an attitude, the bane of all scrubs, the human bullet dispenser, Axton,"

"Woo go Brick!" Church yelled from the stands as Smokey say quietly with his arms crossed and a new black eye decorating his face.

"I hope there won't be any hard feelings after I destroy your skeleton, slab!" Brick said on the opposite side of Axton.

"Yeah me too! My girl's got a couple of bullets with your name on'em"

"ON YOUR MARKS!" Axton reached for his tomahawk.

"GET SET!" Brick pulled the hammer off his back.

"KILL!"

(A/N Alright there's another one down. Like before vote on who you want to win in the reviews. The next fight is Church vs. Claptrap so…yeah that should be interesting. Peace out!)


	32. Relapse

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Back again. New motivation now two people have read the last two chapters. That's double the number of people who read the last time. So I realized just how many fights this tournament is going to have so I'm going to be putting two or more fights to a chapter. Let's get to the action.

St4te of Gr4ce: Yep)

 **Chapter 32: Knight vs. Bishop**

Brick charged forth with his usual strategy. Axton tossed his turrets out on both sides of him. The constant spray of slag bullets and rockets rained on Brick. Before they could break his shield Brick swung his hammer down at the ground with all of his strength. The resulting explosion flattened the ground, destroyed all three turrets, sent Axton into the air, and broke his shield the rest of the way. Now he had to wait until it recharged fully before he could use his explosive pouches again. Axton landed masterfully and without damage thanks to the naturally low gravity of the planet. Brick swung his hammer on to his back and got up close and personal with the commando. Axton punched and kicked as best he could along with the quick strikes of his tomahawk, but to no avail. Most of a soldiers combat training relied on using an opponent's wait against him, but nobody had thought that somebody as big as Brick existed. In the end Axton spent more time dodging than striking; one hit was all it would take to turn him into red mist. His eyes widened when he heard the distant sound of a shield recharging. The sight of Brick's smug smirk confirmed his fears, letting his instincts take over he flung himself on to the berserker's back. He hit him with his tomahawk again and again always narrowly avoiding Brick's attempts to get him off. As it by a miracle he had gotten his shield down to half capacity before Brick grabbed hold of his fore arms and threw him off. While in mid-air Axton threw all three of his turrets in a triangle around the superhuman which rained on him with lead once more. In a new rage Brick shrugged off the gunfire and ripped a boulder from the earth and punched it as hard as he could. Bits of rubble flew everywhere at one hundred fifty miles per hour like a special shrapnel cannon. These pelted Axton and brought him half way to death. The turrets had retreated, Brick was almost dead, and had taken a knee to catch his breath. Just one more all-out hit would do it. In a moment of genius he took his Maliwan nova shield off his belt and sprinted at Brick. With lightning speed and sleight of hand he hooked the shield onto Brick's gauntlet. Before the berserker could react Axton threw his tomahawk and split it right down the middle. With the regulator broken and the circuits severed the shield went ballistic and exploded like five novas in one. When the flames cleared all that remained was Brick's giant skeleton which fell to the ground before disappearing in a blue light.

"HOLY SKAG SUCK! IS IT JUST ME OR DOES IT FEEL LIKE F*UCKING CHRISTMAS!" Torgue bellowed over the microphone.

"Gotta say that was pretty awesome!" Moxxi said in a genuinely awe struck voice. Axton walked out of the arena to a smiling Sarah who nodded modesty. They started walking together back to the bleachers.

"Come on that was awesome; don't pretend it wasn't," Axton said cocky as ever. Sarah rolled her eyes before she grabbed him by the collar and forced their lips together. 'Eh just as good,' Axton thought to himself as he leaned into the show of affection.

"YOU MIGHT BE FEELING A LITTLE DESENTIZED AFTER THAT LAST FIGHT, BUT QUIT IT BECAUSE UP NEXT IS AN ANIME'S F*KING WET DREAM! WE'VE GOT THE ALMOST SUPER HUMAN SWORDSMAN, CHURCH VS. THE ROBOT WITH AN ATTITUDE, CLAPTRAP!" Torgue announced. Church hopped down from his side of the bleachers and Claptrap did the same. They moved closer to each other from opposite sides of the arena. Church drew his swords as Claptrap did some fake karate moves in a pathetic attempt to intimidate him.

"Never fought a robot before," Church commented.

"You might be surprised; maybe a robot will be the real man you've been waiting to fight," The robot said with over confidence. Church stifled his laughter.

"Yeah *sputter* maybe,"

"ON YOUR MARKS!" Church got ready.

"GET SET!" Claptrap ran his strategizing software.

"FIGHT!" Church swung first, but Claptrap retracted his wheel and ducked out of the way. Then he activated vault hunter. EXE unfortunately this resulted in him being encompassed by a rubber inner tube. Church swung a second time but missed as Claptrap bounced into the air and landed on the flat of church's sword. He then jumped off of it and over church, landing four jabs along Church's spine on the way down. Church's eyes bulged out as he took the hits from the hydraulic limbs. He quickly turned around and slashed upwards at the robot. This strike hit and succeeded in both damaging Claptrap and sending him into the air where his action skill ran out and he face planted from fifteen feet in the air. He pushed himself up out of the dirt and scoured his surroundings only to see Church barreling towards him like a freight train. He hopped up and let out his iconic synthetic scream before wheeling away like a coward. Church activated his action skill which gave him a big enough speed boost to catch the Frag trap by the arm and shove a sword through his Tediore shield and then his steel exterior. Claptrap cried out as he experienced the pain in agonizing slow motion. Just then his eyes widened as claptrap disappeared and he now held saw belt in the air by his neck. Church immediately let go and started panicking. He couldn't keep his thoughts together they hit the bottom of his skull and shattered. He was brought slightly back to reality when he felt something the size of a paper weight forced his right knee to invert. He looked up and out of the pile of thought shards came the image of Saw belt himself. His memories failed him; all he had to go off of was the adrenaline raging through his veins. His lips curled in an animalistic smile as he rose from his knees Claptrap had dealt quite a few hits before taking advantage of the situation and backing off to let his action skill cool down. He charged toward the small robot just as his action skill had recovered. He landed on laser inferno; the beams of pure energy pelted church, but he couldn't feel anything over the sensation of his veins and arteries pumping against his skin. Claptrap soon found himself cornered as the crazed swordsman grabbed him by the arms and swung him around, smashing the disco ball and holding the robot up in the air. Claptrap prayed for a miracle just as he heard the beeping sound of his action skill recharging.

'Yes my system must have glitched out!' he though with hope of he activated it again. The bolded words appeared on the inside of his optical sensors _funzerker_ "Shit," he groaned as Church slammed him into a nearby boulder, completely shattering the synthetic eye, and making the combat droid shriek in horror. He slammed the piece of tech in his hands again and again and again. Finally he threw him onto the ground and ripped out what was left of the eye, and gripped the socket where it used to be and pulled with all his might in opposite directions. Blood leaked from his fingers and fell into the circuits as Church pulled harder and harder; a few screams of pain later the binding that held Claptrap together gave way and he split in half vertically. Church's vison cleared and he looked down at what he had done just before it glowed blue and dematerialized in front of him. His previous panic returned ans he threw up before running as fast as he could out of the arena.

"WELL THAT WAS LITTLE LESS SATISFYING THAN I HAD HOPED!"

"Yeah but they can't all be winners,"

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Torgue asked over the microphone. Smokey stood up and ran in the same direction. He had heard the stories, but he had never thought they were true.


	33. It Happened Over Night

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Here we go again. Only two people have read the last chapter. I know I was supposed to get this up sooner, but I really didn't feel like it. I have received no reviews. Let's jump right into it then.)

 **Chapter 33: It Happened Over Night**

The two red heads smirked at each other from opposite ends of the arena. A cool breeze blew through, and sent a tumble weed across the stadium in the space between the two fighters. Gaige couldn't help, but giggle at this.

"Looks like we're about to find out what Clint Eastwood's movies would've been like without guns," She snickered.

"Looks like it," Lilith called over to her opponent.

"UP NEXT WE HAVE THE RED HEADED WITCH, THE IMMORTAL FIRE HAWK, CALL HER NAME OR SHE'LL BURN YOUR VOCASL CHORDS, LILITH!" Torgue shouted finally making the microphone explode. It was a wonder that it lasted as long as it did.

"Going up against the youngest vault hunter, the manic mechanic, Gaige!" Moxxi said calmly. Torgue snatched Moxxi's mic and held it up to his mouth.

"ON YOUR MARKS," Torgue bellowed. Gaige raised her fist, ready to summon her robotic companion.

"GET SET," Lilith focused her energy about to phase walk.

"FIGHT!" Moxxi snagged her mic back, and Torgue slumped over in his chair. Gaige summoned Deathtrap but the expertly designed killing machine did not have a chance to do anything before Lilith went into phase walk. Gaige gripped her hammer tightly, ever aware of the siren's capabilities. Knowing what Lilith's next move would most likely be and taking into account how she moved while in phase walk Gaige reached behind her right side and swung her hammer behind her back. A burst of fire came right after and made Gaige stumble forward. She had guessed right, but chose the wrong side to strike from; Lilith was aiming for her left side. Gaige regained her balance with little problem.

"Good thing fire's crap at destroying shields," Gaige commented, and with that three bolts of acid sprung from her shield and started flying towards Lilith. The siren ran, but to no avail as the bolts sought her out and hit her in the back. She could feel it on the surface of her shield, and dreaded the thought of it being her skin. At that point Deathtrap noticed Lilith but with only five seconds left on its timer. It shot Lilith with its laser for all it was worth. By the time the robot dematerialized Lilith's shield was down and the acid ticked away on her damage for a few more seconds. She looked up to see Gaige leap through the air with a hammer with her name on it. She rolled out of the way in time to dodge, and reenter her phase walk. Gaige stood up again and tapped on her arm with her hammer hard enough to cause literally 5 damage. She followed the resulting bolt right until it hit Lilith, knocking her out phase walk. Gaige followed up with a fierce swing and broke Lilith's right arm right on the elbow. She let out a scream as Gaige summoned Deathtrap once more. Lilith knew she would have to end this fast or else it could go on forever. She took out a brick of Eridian and absorbed it before turning invisible again. She jumped onto of Deathtrap and used her good arm to rip off its head, and shoved the same arm inside the chest cavity. She clenched her fist and with that a jet of fire burst through every opening in the synthetic torso. It fell to the ground and disappeared as Lilith looked Gaige right in the eye and spread her wings. She swung them downward, sending her into the air and stalled there for a moment before freefalling with her fist extended like a fiery winged superman.

"Shit that's cool," Was all Gaige said before a fire covered fist impaled her. Lilith fell to her knees and let out a sigh as her wings dissipated.

"HOLY SH*TBALLS LADIES AND GENTLEMN I DO BELIVE WE HAVE JUST AQUIRED A NEW DEFINTION OF FIRE IN THE SKY!"

"There's never a bad time for a good cat fight,"

 **Meanwhile at the Dahlwell Oasis**

Smokey drove the light racer he snagged at the bandit stronghold as he thought about where Church could possibly be. He had seen tracks from a similar vehicle lead to the bridge to the Dust, but he could still be anywhere, even the Eridium Blight. He was a little distraught; he had never thought the stories were true.

 **Two years earlier**

Smokey, Church, and a few other men around the same age were unloading crates off the back of a truck. The two men had a few differences back then. Smokey wore a white undershirt and had his hair short (Roy mustang's alternate haircut), and Church didn't have nearly as many scars. Smokey and one of the other men walked side by side carrying their respective cargo and then setting it down.

"You betting on that fight tonight?" The man asked.

"Yeah two hundred on Isaac," Smokey answered.

"Are ya' going to the fight?" He asked

"Yeah,"

"Great could ya' tell me who wins I got other plans,"

"Sure,"

"Thanks, Ray" Smokey turned to his friend.

"Hey, church you getting in on this," he asked cheerfully.

"I'd rather not thanks," Church replied with a stone cold expression as he set down his crate and walked back through the door into the break room. Smokey turned to the man.

"Hey, Vinnie you've known Church longer than I have. He always gets really weird when anything violent is going on around him. Do you know anything about it?"

"Sort of. Look Church is a sword fighter and a damn good one too. It was about three months before you turned up; this damn job had just reduced our pay again, and the big guy couldn't even pay his rent anymore. I got a guy on Promithia who runs these fights. It's like the boxing matches we got downstairs but ya get your choice of blunt weapons to bludgeon your opponent with,"

"Okay sounds like fun," Smokey interjected.

"So I tell him to go there he'd get paid double what this place pays him. He came back two weeks early, and more broke than we he left. He was different, he was stiff, filched constantly, at one point I came into the break room and I could've sworn to ya he was crying. I call up my gut and ask him what happened. Turns out he went fucking animal on the poor guy. Broke his ribs, his legs, cracked his skull; the internal bleeding was a big factor. Story has it that Church beat the guy to death in five minutes with a smile on his face. He didn't take it very well."

"Oh come on what are trying to feed me!" Smokey chuckled while picking up another crate.

"True story man. Would I lie to you?" Vinnie asked.

"You practically do it for a living," Smokey retorted.

"Hehe can't disagree with that,"

 **Present**

Smokey lit a cigarette in his mouth. "I gotta remember to apologize to Vinnie, and find out how I can get into one of those fights," Smokey said to himself as he jumped over a dune with his boost on.

(A/N remember when I said it was going to be a longer chapter? I lied.)


	34. Prison Within

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: So my views seem to be continuing to go up. Chapter 31 has 4 views now. This is making me happier than it should be. No reviews…still. Let's get in to it. The further into this I go in it seems like a mistake to have done this. This isn't contributing to the story and there's going to be a lot of fights. Post any suggestions you might have in the reviews or PM me with them.)

 **Chapter 34: Prison Within**

Smokey saw another light racer parked outside the dahl well oasis. He knew it couldn't have been a bandit because they only use technical. None of those mass murdering dumbasses have the brains to drive stick. He stopped his vehicle a good distance from the abandoned gas station so Church wouldn't try to run away. From what he had seen it looked like Church had PTSD, which meant he was having a full blow panic attack right now. Smokey got out of his vehicle and made his way to the minimalistic building. He was never one to provide comfort, matter of fact Zero probably had a better chance of making this turn out well, but he was willing to try; he at least owed him that much. He poked his head through the door way to see an occupied swordsman pacing back and forth a vigorously mumbling to himself. Streams of blood ran from his knuckles and obvious dents into the sheet metal walls provided an answer as to why. Tears ran freely down his cheeks, and this instantly made Smokey uncomfortable; men weren't built to deal with this. Getting over himself Smokey walked inside.

"Church," He said, getting the larger man's attention. He whipped around in shock. "Is there something you want to talk about?" Smokey asked. Church's shock faded as he turned his back to his friend.

"Please, leave," He said solemnly. Smokey took in a deep breath, and took a leap of faith.

"I uh… I know what happened on Prometheus," Church stiffened at those words, and he dared not turn around. "So you killed a guy, who cares. People kill each other all the time. You've probably killed a couple hundred people since you got here," This was the wrong choice of words. Church spun around and let his emotions erupt.

"YOU WEREN'T THERE!" Church grabbed onto Smokey's shoulders and screamed in his face. "YOU WEREN"T THERE! YOU DIDN"T HEAR HIS BONES CRACK, OR HIS PLEAS FOR MERCY; ALL THE WHILE BEING COMPLETELTY UNABLE TO STOP YOURSELF!" Church finished by shoving the shirtless man into to the wall. "Then again it would just turn you on wouldn't it?" Smokey rubbed the back of his head where it had connected with the wall, a deep scowl on his face.

"Church, buddy I like you, and I owe you a lot, but if you push me again you and I are going to explore the definition of pain," He said in his most serious tone.

"Is that right?" Church said while squaring up, having dropped his swords back at the arena.'

"Yeah, that's right," Smokey said as he to squared up, knowing that his whip would have no effect in the small room. Church threw the first punch while Smokey dodged to the left and nailed him in the side. Church threw another punch crossing Smokey on the left side of his face. The sadist recovered from this quickly locked his hands behind Church's head throwing his knees up into his abs. Church pulled his head back on nailed Smokey right on the bridge of his nose with his forehead. Smokey stumbled back now with a new split in his face. He spin kicked Church in the side of his head making a gash on his fore head. A final punch knocked Smokey on his ass. They just stared each other down for a moment, and then Smokey spat the blood out of his mouth and smirked. "Fuck this shit," Smokey grumbled as he got to his feet and stormed out.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Church asked angrily as he followed.

"Back to the arena where people know how to have fun!" Smokey yelled as he hopped into his Light Runner. "Feel free to join us," he said mockingly as he pulled out his revolver. "Have fun walking," He said as he shot the gas tank in Church's runner rendering it destroyed, and then drove off with Church glaring at him in the distance.

 **At the arena**

Loader bot in his knew much more human looking shell (somewhat like Ultron) stood adjacent from Maya ready for their next fight. This certainly would be an interesting fight. Torgue had already screamed fight, but both sides were cautious and calculating, trying their best to pick the best path. Loader made the first move, getting up close to Maya so he could strike a blow. This was a risky decision seeing as how Maya could literally turn him into a pile of acid, but just standing around wasn't getting them anywhere. He went for a take down, but Maya being as agile as she is dodged out of the way easily, and activated her phase lock. Loader was bombarded by fire and corrosive damage for all of three seconds until he activated his action skill. Robot jargon; a supersonic wave emitted from his core. Maya lost her concentration and let the robot down as she reached for her bleeding ears. While she was down, Loader threw an uppercut. His hydraulic tendons sent the siren flying face first into the air. She got a hold of herself and phase locked her fist stopping her from taking the fall. She landed and evaded another attack from Loader, finding a perfect opening she nailed him in the back with her phase fist. Loader whipped his fist around, and Maya jumped back to avoid the hit; quickly realizing that she had broken her hand. She now knew that nothing short of her phase lock would be any effect on him, and he could quickly negate it; she was doomed. Cutting her losses she activated her phase lock again, lifting Loader into the air and dealing constant damage until his shield broke. She was filled with hope as he didn't activate Robot Jargon; maybe her phase lock had broken his LRAD. Her hope was destroyed as her ears started to bleed once again. She fell to her knees as Loader fell to his feet. He raised his fist for the killing blow and when he did Maya struck at the exposed joint with her phase fist, not even caring that her hand was broken. Loader was now short an arm and needed to act quickly. He swung his other arm to the side, making Maya skid across the dirt with blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. He mounted her to make sure she didn't get away and wound back his arm in a position that didn't expose his joint. Maya could've activated her phase walk again by that point, but didn't want to hear the blood rushing out of her ears again, and instead opted to watch as the steel fist came closer and closer until it connected. Maya was gone almost instantly; it was like taking a bullet. Loader pulled his fist out of the half broken skull and stood up. Evaluating his options he ripped his own main processor out so that he would respawn with no repairs necessary. It was the most efficient option.

"UM LOADER BOT STILL WON RIGHT?!" Torgue shouted into his new mic.

"I think so," Moxxi said unsure enough. "Oh well close enough," She shrugged. "Our next fight is-"

(A/N: Sorry for the delated update. I can't update on Wednesdays and I spent the four days before that working on the first chapter of my new story. Dust in the Wind in the Undertale archive. It's much better than this. Speaking of stories that aren't complete shit check out wayward son in this archive. It is so good! Like ten times better than this maybe even more. The next fights will be Mordecai vs. Rhys and Smokey vs. Tex.)


	35. Just Another Bar Fight

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands.

(A/N: Hey guy I'm back again, and with some good news! This story has reached over 1,600 views and 41 reviews! Wooooo!

Dria'5 broken ca5tles: I appreciate it.

The survivor and the fighter: I'm back baby!)

 **Chapter 35: Just Another Bar Fight**

Church trudged his way through the crater at an intentionally slow pace. He would've preferred to just go home, but thanks to Smokey it looked like he was stuck with this.

"Damn it, Ray!" Church muttered under his breath. "First you force me into this mess, then you try to beat me up, and then you blow up my car!" The swordsman continued to mumble idly. The truth was that while that was what was coming out of his mouth he had something completely different on his mind. Why'd he lose it? He was doing so well; he had been in a ton of fights, and killed a ton of people since he came here. He felt horrible about it, sure, but he never went shithouse like he had earlier today. Was this just going to be his life from this point on? Having to do the thing he hated the most just to survive, and reliving his worst memory over and over again? He didn't really want to know the answer. Letting out a grief filled sigh he entered the arena on the opposite side of where he had remembered Smokey's seat had been. He had gotten in and taken his seat just in time to see the next fight.

"THAT LAST ONE WAS STILL AWESOME, BUT ATHER LACK LUSTER! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WORKING FOR ROBOTS! LET'S HOPE THIS NEXT ONE IS A LITTLE BETTER! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE HAVE A SEASONED VETRAN ON OUR HANDS! THE HUNTER, YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE, HAS A BADASS KILLING MACHINE AS A BEST FRIEND, MORDECAI!" announced Torgue.

"Going up against my old flame is a new spark. He's new, he tenacious, he brought down Helios, Rhys!" Moxxi introduced theatrically.

Mordecai walked on the easily shifting dirt, looking through his goggles at his newest pray. Talon, who was perched on Mordecai's shoulder, let out a caw in anticipation. Rhys stepped up to the plate so to speak. He stood tall and proud with his stun baton at the ready. As far as Rhys knew, he was a shoo-in with this weapon. It produced massive amounts of kinetic energy, and would easily knock anything out of the reformed alcoholic's grip. If Mordy was going to win he'd have to do it without parrying any of his strikes.

"ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, FIGHT!" Mordecai started by sending Talon out immediately. The predatory bird sailed towards Rhys at an unreal speed. He hadn't prepared himself for an ariel attack. The bird slashed it Talons across any bit of flesh he could find while the ex-salary man swatted at him with his weapon. A number of the slashes had landed across his mechanical arm, but he still took several hits; each one resulting in four deep, long cuts through his suit. Finally he wound up and hit Talon away with his strong arm, only to instinctively duck under a thin but razor sharp blade. Mordecai changed his stance and twirled his word at lightning speed to stab downward. Rhys raised his baton just in time for the sword to strike it rather than him. The recoil sent Mordecai's arms in the air as he stumbled backwards, determined not to lose his weapon. Rhys took the opportunity to get a hit in and thrusted the rod into the pit of the sniper's stomach. Mordecai was thrown against one of the tin structures in the arena. He gasped for breath, and opened his eyes to find that his shield had taken the hit for him. It was now Rhys who stood over Mordecai, ever ready to strike the killing blow. Mordecai got his wind second wind (not the one you're thinking about) at just the right time and kicked Rhys in the knee cap. He winced at the pain, and involuntarily bent down just enough for Mordecai to lean back on his elbows and kicked the baton out of Rhys' hand. The slim sniper sprung up and took another slash at the vault hunter, who leapt back in response. Mordecai steadied himself and caught the baton out of the air without even looking. He lunged forward, letting out a barrage of slashes with the dual weapons. Rhys tried his best to block the sword with his artificial arm and dodge the baton, but soon found himself without a metal hand after taking a baton hit right at the wrist. Rhys made a decision without even thinking about it. He took an unexpected step forward and shoved the exposed live wires into Mordy's chest. The sniper lost control of his motor skills and found himself paralyzed by the constant flow of amperage. Rhys grabbed on firmly to the hilt of the sword and head butted Mordecai on the bridge of his nose. He let go of the sword and fell to the ground, looking up through now broken goggles. Rhys raised the sword, poised to strike all seemed set in stone. Until Mordy whistled; Rhys had no time to react before he felt intense pain in his eyes. It felt like someone had just plunged knives into them. The reality wasn't far off; that whistle had signaled Talon to go for the eyes, a necessary maneuver for a falconry hunter. Mordecai casually got off the ground, and dusted himself off; now that his opponent was reduced to a blind man flailing a sword around aimlessly. He walked up calmly, making sure to avoid the constantly moving blade, and with one precise motion knocked Rhys' head off his shoulders into the air.

"WINNER! THESE FIGHTS APEAR TO BE GETTING BETTER AS WE GO ON SO I THINK ITS AFE TO SAY YOU FOLKS OUT THERE ARE GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH!" Torgue announced as the staff started to clean up the arena for the next fight. "UP NEXT IS A LONG AWAITED MATCH UP IF THE SPYING I'VE BEEN DOING SERVES ME CORRECTLY! THE KING OF PAIN, THE SINNER WHO'S NO BEGINNER, HE'LL MAKE YOU CRY BEFORE YOU DIE, SMOKEY!"

"Going up against him is someone pretty special. The apex predator, the beast with no equal, I would have gone after her myself, but I'm not a fury, Tex!" Smokey made his way through the crowds with a prominent scowl on his face as he hopped over the wall and into the arena. Tex did the same, as she shot a smirk at her rival expecting to see the same grin on his face, but was surprised to find that he had a serious frown on his face and wasn't even looking at her. Her instincts were giving her bad feelings, as if she was about to enter a world of pain that wasn't even reserved for her.

"ON YOUR MARKS," Smokey spat out his cigarette and stomped it out as he cracked his neck. "GET SET," Tex changed forms and snarled, baring her fangs. With her advanced hearing she could hear barking, and knew that Brice was cheering her on. "FIGHT!"

(A/N: Yo the next fight is Vincent v.s Zero, and then we're done with the first bracket. I know this is going to get boring just reading fight scenes for this long, but I'm trying to think about future readers. Once all of this is done you could probably read through it in a couple of days. That's also why I'm throwing in bits and pieces of story and character development. Also anime does it so it has to work right?)


	36. Predator Vs Hunter

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Back again. Let's continue huh? Please tell me if you like what I'm doing or not. I have a lot of ideas and they're all going to get used eventually, but if none of you guys out there like this long drawn out filer tournament then I shouldn't be writing it.

Dria'5 Broken Ca5tle5: Sir, do you require medical attention?)

 **Chapter 36: Predator vs. Hunter**

Torgue shouted his self-appointed lines as he did at the beginning of every fight. Tex and Smokey stood a little ways away from each other just like in the other fights, but something wrong. Smokey wasn't even looking at Tex. It was as if he was gazing through her with his hundred yard stare. Tex knew something was different, but it was of little concern to her. She was here to win, not to make friends. Upon the final shout Tex transformed, and started to sprint too her prey like the apex she was. Smokey just stood there, ever waiting, unreadable, a statue of pain and death. She leapt into the air ready to pounce. She couldn't react or fall in time to avoid the cowboy boot clad heel that collided with the side of her face. She was knocked to the side as Smokey followed through on his reverse spin kick and returned to a relaxed stance. His eyes remained half lidded and the frown on his face remained undisturbed. Tex stood up one more and took a swipe at the sadist with her claws only for her prey to dodge out of the way and hook his arm around hers in an arm bar. Normally the stronger fighter in the situation would be able to bend her arm out of the lock, but Smokey had wrapped his leg around her waist for leverage and Tex soon found herself on the ground. She could feel the tendons in her elbow about to break when she threw her now hardened skull back in the slender man's face, forcing him to release. She shook him off onto the ground and the whipped around and pounced, ready to sink her fangs into him. Her attack was cut short when Smokey's whip wrapped around her muzzle and forced it shut. She raised her claws and dug them into the sadist's rib cage, making him squirm on the ground, before he forced the heel of his boot into her pelvis freeing the knife blade hidden in the tip of his boot. He wound back and kicked the blade into her rib cage, forcing her to reel back. She retreated to think of a new plan of attack, but felt the sting of Smokey's whip on her back in the process. She stumbled and almost fell from the pain as he struck again. She felt her control start to slip from her grasp as a feral glint appeared in her amber eyes. One more hit did it. She howled and charged at her rival, no longer considering prey. They were both predators on this battlefield. This time Tex's attack succeeded and the two fighters became tangled in a mass of swinging limbs. Smokey put up a good fight with his fists and knife boot, but ultimately he couldn't fend against the animal, and choked as a pair of fangs ripped through his jugulars. She pulled away from the dying man under her, and found the he had the same scowl on his face. Now she was surprised, but whether or not she should be impressed or not she was unsure. Shaking the almost haunting expression on her opponent's face she thrusted a claw into his forehead to end the fight. It would've have taken three minutes for the gash on his neck to actually kill him. Smokey's eyes widened for that one moment before he was devoured by the familiar blue light. Smokey felt his form reconstitute on the other side of the machine; he absolutely hated it. He took in a breath and held it, just standing in front of the machine as if he was contemplating something. With a dismissive wave he let the breath out and strolled away from the machine back to the barracks.

Violette sat on her bead reading a book called _The Book Thief._ She enjoyed the quiet; it was something she had noticed a distinct lack of since she took up the job of vault hunter. Saphyre lay down on the bed silently with a completely straight face. This didn't worry the young engineer, it wasn't often that her psychotic companion would enter these short catatonic states, but it was normal.

"You feel her trying to break through again don't you?" Saphyre's sane half asked casually.

"She wants to kill gear maiden," Saphyre answered sadly, her thoughts seeming to echo in her head.

"It's okay, she hasn't gotten through yet, she won't anytime soon,"

"Time opens all wounds!" She shouted urgently, her mindscape now turning to an eerie red. Smokey walked through the door, closing it behind him to keep the AC in. The sound drew Violette's attention for a moment, before she looked back to the page as to not lose her place. Violette couldn't tell if Smokey was being pissey or respectful as he silently sat down on the bed. A moment of thought was all it took to remember that Smokey and respectful didn't belong in the same sentence. Shrugging this off she returned to her book; the only sounds after that was the click from Smokey's zippo. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes; time kept going and there wasn't a single noise other than Violette turning the page three times. Finally she decided to look up from her book to check on the man in the room, only to find him hunched over on a bed staring at his feet. Smokey got the feeling on the back of his neck that everyone gets when someone's looking at them. He looked up at the young woman across from him blankly, and she quickly looked back at her book to avoid further embarrassment. He smirked and sat up, spitting on his fore arm and then stubbing his cigarette out on it. He stayed silent for a moment longer before engaging in conversation.

"So, what are you doing here?" Has asked casually.

"Excuse me?" Violette asked, not really understanding the question.

"I mean why are you here? As in on this planet; no offence but it doesn't take a second look to tell that you don't belong here," Smokey said honestly. Violette folded the corner of the page she was on to mark her place with a bemused smile on her face.

"Heh-heh yeah I guess you're right. Under normal circumstances I'd probably be as far away from here as possible. Yet here I am." She said triumphantly.

"Yeah why?" He reiterated in hopes that he would get an actual answer this time.

"Well since you're my team mate I guess I can tell you," She put a hand to her chin for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "Four years ago an S&S assassin killed my parents right in front of me. I still don't know why, but in the middle of the night I heard a noise in the living room. I went out to see what happened and that's when the shooting started. I watched from around the corner, thanks to my brother. If it weren't for him I probably would've charged head first into certain death like the stupid kid I was," Smokey listened intently, feeling an inexplicable pang of something in his chest. Sympathy maybe. "Turns out my parents were total badasses. They put up an awesome fight and had a pair of really good guns, but that assassin was really good at his job. He had shock transfusion grenades and wrist mounted fire SMG's they didn't stand a chance. In the end I had to watch them turn into ashes right before my eyes screaming all the while," Something struck in Smokey's mind. H felt a thick fog lift off a memory that had remained in the back of his head for years. He remembered his sister; god he hopped she was okay. "My brother was tough, he got in a lot of fights and I can't remember him losing any of them,"

"Heh small world," Smokey chuckled inwardly.

"While I was in shell shock he ran past me and sucker punched the guy so hard it knocked his left eye out of its socket. After that he got knocked out. I couldn't help but cry out, and immediately regretted it," Smokey found himself getting angrier as the story went on. He didn't know why, though it probably had something to do with the memory. The fog had been replaced with confusion; it was as if the memory was playing out of order and he was having trouble decoding it. "He strode right up to me and said _feel free to come find me if you want_. Then he knocked me out. When I woke up the cops were there and my brother was gone." The confusion started to thin at the end of the story. "I even changed my name in case he ever tried to come and finish the job," She said with a sad smile. That's when everything clicked.

"A-Anya?" Smokey asked meekly hopping that just maybe he was right. Violette stiffened at her birth name, and she stared at Smokey with wide eyes until realization hit her as well.

"Nathen?"

(A/N: Yeah you read write. I've been planning this for a while so I hope it worked.)


	37. Reunion

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hello again. I'm back with a proposition. So there's no way this is going to keep you entertained for as long as I have it going on. My solution is that we're going to have an A plot and a B plot. The Tournament will become the B plot while the people who have already been eliminated or decided not to enter can take over the A plot on a mission. Sound good? Good. I've had something lined up for a while anyway courtesy of Dria'5 Broken Ca5tel5.)

 **Chapter 37: Reunion**

Smokey and Violette formerly known as Nathen and Anya embraced each other tightly. Both of them held the other close, neither of them caring that Smokey wasn't wearing a shirt.

"God, what happened to you? Where did you go?" Violette asked as she pulled back to look him in the eye. Smokey quickly looked away with a concealing smile on his face.

"I don't want to talk about it," Violette looked at him skeptically for a moment. She could see past the façade. She could see the pain. She could see the damage. She knew it was there, but didn't know what it was. Taking a step back she decided to let it go.

"Alright I'm not going to push you to it," Saphyre sat up, intrigued by what was going on.

"Huh I wonder why we never recognized him before," Saphyre's sane side commented.

"New man, new life, new skin," Saphyre answered.

"True enough,"

"Thanks, but hey what have you been up to?" Smokey asked cheerfully. Violette smiled warmly as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well since obviously, I wasn't just going to sit around and let that murdering bastard get away with what they did, so I've been training to be a badass vault hunter. You know the usual. Aim, strength, robotics, stamina everything I could possibly need," Violette chimed with a smile. Smokey looked to the crazy woman staring at him intently.

"So then who is this?" The sadist asked while pointing a finger at Saphyre.

"Well, you see-"The deadly engineer started, but was cut off by the static coming from all three of their echo's.

"Vault hunters, come in vault hunters," Commander Lyme's voice came over the devices. Smokey and Violette picked theirs up immediately.

"Yeah," They both responded.

"I've got a mission for you. Five people are required; if you accept meet me in the map room. First come first serve," Sarah ended the transmission there.

"Aw hell yeah! Perfect timing. You coming?" Smokey asked with enthusiasm. Violette nodded and then looked over to her insane companion who had gone back to lying flat on her back silently.

"She'll be fine, let's go," Violette dismissed as she and her brother jogged out the door.

"Heh-heh, I think we've been up staged," sane Saphyre chided. Insane Saphyre replied with two words… or maybe it's one word, who the hell knows.

"Bullshit,"

Vincent looked through his glasses at his more than formidable opponent. As a matter of fact he wondered if anyone had a fair chance against this monster of a man. Likewise Zero looked at his opponent looked at his opponent with intrigue. He had never seen the plain looking man fight before, and wondered if he could be a challenge. Torgue had already finished with his announcing if you could call it that.

"It's a shame that we must fight each other my comrade. I hope this inspires no harsh feelings between us," Vincent called out to the mysterious man across from him.

"Likewise my counterpart," Zero stated before drawing his blade and sprinting off in Vincent's direction. Vincent had plenty of time to think and acted according to the recordings he had watched from Zero's previous missions. He waited right up until the blade was at his forehead before he turned around and kicked the air behind him. He felt the resistance that would come from 130 pounds of pure tall muscle. The clone exploded into electricity, but didn't affect his transformer shield while Zero was forced out of his deception. The assassin slid back on the dirt of the arena with a smiley face emoticon on his helmet.

"Well done Vincent/ looks like you're my new challenge," Zero said as he took a fast stride too the shorter man in front of him at took several swings. Vincent dodged each of them with insane agility, striking back with kicks, punches and stabs from his twin pen knives (Unlockable through the write your own story skill tree). Unfortunately none of the stabs he took succeeded, and his martial arts could only bring the ninja's Inflammable order shield down to 50%. Zero disappeared again in the middle of a strike much to Vincent's dismay. Vincent ignored the decoy flailing around and tossed four land mine looking devices on the ground, and waited. It was only a moment or two until the slag mine went off and Zero was revealed once again. Cutting his losses Zero charged in for a lightning fast strike. Vincent raised his pen knives and crossed the blades to protect himself. The three blades met and Vincent pushed them off to the right so he could make his move. He forced the last mine that he had held onto into the assassin's chest. The column of electricity combined with the leftover slag effect to bring Zero's health bar all the way down to half dead, until he stabbed two of his kunai into the device, destroying it instantly. The effect stayed with him for a few seconds while he threw his remaining three kunai into Vincent. Vincent panicked inwardly as his shields and health dropped rapidly. The scribe built up his resolve and charged at the assassin. He dropped at the last moment at did a sweep kick, only for his leg to go right through the hologram's ankles. He looked up to see the real Zero falling from the sky, sword primed to run him through. Smiling Vincent rolled away to reveal the mine that Zero was about to land on. Zero could do nothing to change his trajectory now, as he fell on the small device which erupted into a column of acid that coated his shield. Zero rushed out of it while looking frantically for his challenge. He heard his shield break at the same time he felt two pen knives pierce his shoulders. He shook off the pain threw two of his kunai into both f Vincent's feet without even looking behind him. In one fluid motion he spun around and impaled his sword through Vincent's body and his Vladof shield. As the elements started to dissolve the scribe's legs Zero raised his word and flashed the heat emoticon before slashing Vincent in half vertically. For once Torgue was speechless…for all of five seconds.

"AS SOMONE WHO THOUGHT THAT FIGHT WOULD LAST FIVE SECONDS I STAND WILDLY CORRECTED! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE HAVE OURSELVES A WINNER!" Zero nodded to the muscular man in the booth and started to stride away.

Smokey and Violette met up with Ace, Maya, and Brick in the map room where Sarah was waiting for them to arrive.

"Looks like we have everyone. The mission should you accept it is in a place called Alagra. Alagra is a city on the Northern Shelf, that was commissioned by Anshin back when the corporations still had hopes of bringing order to this place, well before Jack anyway," She tapped on the holomap which took the shape of the city. It was big and full of giant buildings, some still standing some not. "Our sources have informed me that this building here was a research center that Anshin was using it as a research facility to develop new unique weapons. The files that our informants have found indicate that there's a very high chance of there being new technology that would be invaluable in our fight against S&S," She explained as she pointed to a building and zoomed in on it.

"Sounds simple enough, so what would have stopped bandits from raiding the place by now?" Violette asked before anyone else could.

"That brings me to our next problem," She tapped a button on the holotable, and it projected a full body image of a man wearing Eskimo clothes, goggles, and four shotguns on his back. "This is drags hot, the leader of a bandit clan that occupies half the city called the shotters," She tapped the button again and another image was projected of a fat man wearing formal clothes, a fedora, and holding a Vladof assault rifle. "And this is Grig the leader of Mirror, the rival clan to the shotters. They control the other half of the city. Both side constantly fight each other to get to the cache, but neither of them can ever muster up enough force to overpower the inhabitants of the building,"

"So who's in the building?" Maya asked.

"That's the thing. We have no idea. This is all the information I have for you aside from that if you succeed you will be greatly rewarded," The option screen came up on their echo's. "Do you except?"

(A/N: Alrighty then let me know what you thought of this, and I'll try to accommodate your needs.)


	38. Split Decison

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hi! You may be wondering what the actual fuck happened to me. The answer? Term papers, term papers are always the answer. I would've gotten this up sooner, but this weekend has been really busy for me.

Dria'5 Broken Ca5tle'5: Yes except almost not at all. I am just realizing that I just completely ripped off the Merrif.

The Survivor and the Fighter: Good!)

 **Chapter 38: Split decision**

Violette, Smokey, Ace, Maya, and Brick observed their surroundings as the blue glow started to fade. It was as they expected; a snow covered waste land that stretched as far as the eye could see that was only broken by the city of Alagra in the distance.

"God, it's cold," Smokey grumbled as he crossed his arms, now clad in a burgundy winter coat. Violette chuckled. She remembered just how pissed Smokey would get every time it snowed; she always thought it was odd that he never liked it, even as a little kid. Moving in a straight line towards the city the hunters trudged through the shin deep snow.

"How can anything live in this? Not even the snow in in the Southern Shelf was this bad." Maya commented as she felt the snow start to melt through her pants.

"Oh yeah the shelf!" Brick exclaimed. "Man those bullymongs can punch almost as hard as me," He boomed while scratching a scar across his face. "Hehe almost," He repeated as if it were an afterthought. Smokey was shooting Brick the most confused glance when the ground beneath them broke. They all groaned as they sat up. They had fallen through into a system of tunnels not far below the surface, but still far enough that Brick wouldn't be able to toss them back up, which was certainly his first idea. Smokey chuckled as he brushed himself off.

"Not the biggest hole I've been through," He quipped. Violette remained silent as she pinched the bridge of her nose, and Mayan shot at edge of the hole they fell through, causing a small piece of ice to fall on Smokey's head. "AH, SHIT!" The sadist yelled as the others started walking by. "Oh come on that was funny!" He yelled down the tunnel.

"Not even a little bit," Ace said calmly as he walked by. Naturally the tunnels got darker as they walked away from their makeshift entrance, as the rag-tag team of vault hunters reserved to using the flashlights on their echo's to guide them.

"There's gotta be some way to get out of here," Brick mumbled in a softer voice, the dead quiet in the cave making him more aware of just how loud he was sometimes.

"What could have made these anyway?" Violette asked thoughtfully. "The walls and ceiling are all just frozen dirt, but there's like this plexi-glass coding the whole thing to keep it from collapsing in,"

"Whatever it is, if it bleeds I can kill it," 1340 said with confidence.

"That's beside the point, 40."

"You're always so quick to pull his trigger, what if what made these tunnels is endangered, huh? I swear you could bring a village out of poverty with how many shells you use!" Morningstar interjected. This started an annoying argument between the two synthetic voices. The young engineer pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Why do I do this to myself?" She complained. The argument was stopped by a high pitched screech that ended as fast as it started and sounded as if it had moved past them. The five gunslingers froze in place, and he sentient guns became silent.

"What the hell was that?" Ace asked, unsure if he really wanted to know. They heard it again only this time it was as if the sound was multiplied by three and playing in harmony. Smokey whipped around just in time to catch a purple tentacle dashing out of the light, causing the sadist to jump back.

"Shit!" He yelled as he drew the Jeremiah revolver at his side. Maya tried to track the movement with her light but was only able to catch a lengthy tentacle or a fur covered limb. Finally she realized that they were surrounded.

"Everybody form a circle! They're all around us!" Maya yelled with urgency. Ace, Smokey, Violette, Maya, and Brick all put their backs to each other, letting the echoes firmly secured to the left side of the chests light up the area around them to reveal the creatures surrounding them. They were Jackal like beasts with thick black fur covering their entire body except for the four deep purple tentacles that sprung from their backs; the tentacles had four holes each that would make a sharp whistling sound when they were swung. The knee high dogs growled fiercely as bone spikes sprouted from their skin in random places like a tiger's claws.

"What are these?!" Ace asked before gulping hard as they took a single step closer. This question must've activated Hammerlock's online Almanac as the seasoned hunter's voice came from the speakers.

" _Shrieks, canine like creatures with terribly strong tentacles. Tending to reside in areas where it is usually well below zero, they rely on underground tunnels to survive. There is no record of a man making it out of one alive."_ The dissertation ended as the shrieks started to whip their tendrils back and forth making the same whistling sound as before.

"Well that's all fine, but how do we kill them?!" Maya yelled as they got closer and closer. One started to pounce, but was shot out of the air.

"How do you kill anything?" Smokey asked, gun smoking. "Shoot it 'til it stops moving," In an instant both sides broke out into intense combat. Ace kept the shrieks at bay with his bolshie lyuda while performing his hunter's song. Five random shrieks suddenly turned around and started attack their own, going for the throats to end the fight quickly. Violette pulled out Bane whose incredible fire rate and spread fire feature worked wonders against the mob of anime-esque monsters, while her robots flung into the crowd to fight as well. Maya activated her phase lock, lifting four shrieks into the air until the y practically melted while she dealt with the others using her favorite fire elemental E-tech SMG. The orbs of fire based energy cut through the ranks like butter, only taking a Knick here and there from the razor sharp fangs. Brick had drawn his hammer easily clearing the ground in front of him with every swing, a red mist starting to develop around him. Any animals that managed to avoid the vaporous fate couldn't get their fangs far enough past Brick's muscles to really bother him, and had their necks promptly broken. Smokey was making do with his cat o' nine tails as the shrieks were constantly eating away at his shield and now his flesh. He was too close to his teammates to use his laughter of agony, and his homing grenade mods would just fly to the shrieks that were already on his ass, and fry him to a crisp in the process. He would just have to take his lumps and hope that he wouldn't die and end up losing like a quarter of his cash. Just as his health dropped to 15% shock based auto fire like what would come out of the turrets in Hyperion strongholds made Swiss cheese of the alien abominations (Another Great band name). The surveyor drones quickly turned and moved on to other enemies. Smokey looked over to his sister and shot her a smirk, which she returned. Looking around to make sure there were no others waiting to pounce in the shadows.

"Let's keep moving; there has to be a way out eventually," Violette motioned forward as they carried on.

(A/N: And there's your introduction to the Alagra DLC. Man action scenes with guns suck to read! "He pulled the trigger, and then he pulled it again, and then again, and eventually he stopped moving," I'm trying to make it as exciting for you as possible, but I've always been a more melee centered kind of guy. Next time we're going back to the tournament, and don't worry I'm not just dropping that bit with Church and Smokey.)


	39. Whole Other Animal

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Hey again everybody! Apparently it's been twenty one days since I updated. That would feel like forever to me if I was following this story. I'm sorry, but there's really nothing that can be done about it. Writing is just a hobby of mine anyway. Happy mother's day!

Penpal678910: Welcome aboard amigo!

Dria'5 Broken Ca5stle5: bet your gun lovin' ass I did!)

 **Chapter 39: Whole Other Animal**

Back at the arena Athena was sizing up her new opponent, as Axton did the same. They both new this wouldn't be an easy fight, but funny enough neither seemed to mind. The two soldiers started off towards each other; slowly at first, then a little faster, and a little faster, until they were sprinting, just aching to clash together. At the last second Athena dropped, and slid on the ground with her sword positioned to cut the commando in half from the groin up. Axton perceived this quickly as he moved his hatched to block xiphos, and stop the gladiatrix in her tracks in the process.

"A little too close for comfort," Axton quipped as beads of sweat started to roll down his forehead. Before Athena could react Axton tossed his turret out with a plan in mind. That plan however was quickly shattered when the ex-assassin threw her legs up and wrapped her ankles around Axton's throat, successfully pulling him down, flipping over him, and putting xiphos up to his neck. The turret couldn't shoot with Axton in the way, and it would seem that Athena had found a rather effective way to dispose of Axton's shield. She reached for the Dahl booster shield securely hooked to the commando's hip, but was stooped short when a hatchet reached behind Axton's head and bashed her shield with the sharp end. The blade couldn't get through her shield, but the impact had still dazed her. Axton knew this from firsthand experience, which he had acquired during an argument with Sarah. Taking advantage of Athena's confusion, Axton pried the blade away from his jugulars, and then systematically depleted her shield. Turning around with the blade in hand, Axton twisted the gladiatrix's arm, and with the other hand he landed critical hit to the head again and again until the shield broke. Coincidently this was also the moment where Athena was able to pull herself together enough to defend herself. With a kick to the shin the commando was forced to release his grip. As Axton backed away Athena took a slag shot from the turret just before it folded back up, and reappeared on Axton's hip. The male soldier tried to take advantage of the status effect by swinging his hatchet at Athena once again, but was thrown off by a shield that seemed to come out of thin air. Swinging her shield to the left she threw Axton off balance making him stumble. When he regained composure he immediately noticed the un-modded grenade in between him and his opponent, and that she had started to jump backwards. The grenade detonated, and both fighters were thrown back. Athena instantly shook off the blast and landed on her feet. Axton skidded on his back, and looked up just in time to see the shield flying his way.

"Shit!" He grunted as he rolled out of the way of the shield; the blast that resounded from it still pushing him a little. Seeing that Athena was still throwing her digistruct shields, he jumped to his feet and dodged. Athena sprinted in large circles around the commando as she continued to throw the exploding discs. Axton stayed light on his feet as he leaned, jumped, and rolled out of the way. It was dodgeball all over again. After one roll Axton threw his hatchet with imbibed itself into the ground at Athena's feet. Unbeknownst to her, Axton had made a few adjustments to his weapon of choice. As the gladiatrix stepped over the discarded weapon it exploded as well, sending bit of shrapnel into her shield, and eventually into her flesh. Athena was thrown onto her side by the shock wave, and where the shrapnel had been launched left her rather unable to walk. Athena writhed in pain as Axton walked up to her casually with a smug smile on his face.

"Good game eh? I'll make this quick," Axton said as he threw both of his turrets on the ground on either side of her. The explosion that came upon impact left little of the feared assassin, letting Axton know he had won.

The team continued on through the tunnels, dealing with the odd beast that came up here and there. These creatures must have had insane hunting instincts, they learned that a full frontal assault wouldn't be enough to kill them, and disappeared for the most part after that. The vaulters stayed on their toes; it felt as if they were being lead into a trap. The flashlights on their echoes lit the way, or rather two ways. It seemed that the cave had forked into two paths.

"Which one should we go down, mates?" Ace asked as he considered the option.

"We gonna do this Saturday morning carton style? Split up," Smokey suggested.

"No way," Maya shot down.

"This could be their plan, to split us up and pick us off," Violette concurred.

"So we pick one right?" Brick asked as he raised a finger. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a thresher by the tentacle-," Brick's ingenious method of decision making was interrupted by sudden vibrations that shook through the caves. The shaking became more intense, as Maya peered deeper into the right tunnel. Letting the light fill the rock tube, the shaking finally became impossible to ignore as black fur came into view. Shrieks covered the floor, and walls, and ceiling as well. They didn't slow down, as the wave of fur and claws tumbled closer to the vaulters.

"Dear, god in heaven," Brick whispered in awe.

"Fuckin' book it!" Ace urged as he took off running. The others quickly followed, the obscene number of shrieks right on their tails.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! I just found my sister again; I don't wanna die with her!" Smokey screamed as involuntary tears pricked at his eyes. "Damn it! I can't die with the terms I left Church on!" The sadist continued seemingly forgetting that he was in the New-U system.

"Somebody do something!" Violette commanded as she formed he robots. They didn't last long at all, tearing a few to shreds before being overrun and shredded themselves. Joining in, Maya phase locked ten of the shrieks. The ball of animals blocked the tunnel for all of ten seconds before they were ripped apart by their own kind.

"What is it with these things?!" Maya screamed, or rather wheezed. Ace expended his action skill as well, forcing five of the shrieks onto his side before they were; you guessed it turned into bloody pulp. "Hey, look!" ace shouted, as he pointed ahead. At the end of the tunnel there appeared to be a steel door of some sort. The team now sprinted for all they were worth to the door. They all exited the tunnel, and onto the other side. Brick was the first one to start trying to close the vault like door, the claws of several shrieks poking out of the crack that they couldn't manage to get closed. After half a minute of trying and failing to close the door, and seemingly failing to keep it from being reopened, Brick backed away from the door.

"Brick, what you are doing!" Maya yelled at the wall of living muscle.

"Brace yourself, slab!" Brick called out before charging full force into the door, finally forcing it shut, and dismembering the limbs of those unfortunate shrieks who were to slow to pull them away. Looking around, they found themselves in some sort of underground vehicle bay.

"Where are we?" Ace asked as he and the others started towards what appeared to be a ginormous freight elevator.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Violette wheezed as she struggled to catch her breath. A deep growl brought the vaulter's attention to the top platform where the elevator led. With bound and a leap, one Shriek easily the size of four Bricks put together, and six tentacles rather than four. The beast's plan quickly became clear.


	40. Den of Death

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: This chapter should've been an intermission like chapter 20, but you guys aren't interested in that. You want to see some action, so let' dive right in! Oh and sorry this came out late; I was on vacation. SCHOOL'S OUT BABY!

The Survivor and the fighter: No, this is the period in between the alliance getting the information necessary to attack, and the attack. Where Sarah, Lilith, and Axton are gathering forces and coming up with strategies. And to Dustin246810, welcome aboard! )

Chapter 40: Den of Death

As the giant shriek, dubbed Blood Curdled leaned back, ready to pounce; the vault hunters and ex vault hunters took a defensive stance of their own; their guns and shields replacing their fangs and claws.

"This thing doesn't look friendly," Violette commented as she drew her bane, hopping that the others would provide enough distraction that she would just be able to eat away at its health from one spot.

"My favorite," Both Smokey and Brick replied simultaneously, evoking a grin out of both of them. Blood Curdled kept circling them, unsure of what to do.

"Well let's get this out of the way," Maya said calmly as she phase locked the giant shriek. The move did nothing to hold the beast still, but instead applied a thin sheen of status effects. It let out an awful howl before lunging at the vault hunters. Exactly as Violette had feared the others had jumped away, but she was stuck here with her stupid crippling, yet powerful weapon. Seeing no other option, she fell backwards just barley escaping the vice of Blood's jaw. Now in position she emptied her magazine into its stomach. Before it could wind back to attack Violette, Brick drew its attention by punching at full force in the face. This knocked Blood off of her as she quickly sprung up and exchanged bane for her shotgun.

"Ready for carnage," It exclaimer as she took three shots at the shriek while Brick continued to distract it. Smokey took advantage as well, and leaped onto Blood's back. Digging the knife blades hidden in his boots and taking ahold of the long black fur, he felt confident in his grip. Once he had steadied himself amongst the Broncho like bucking, he pulled out his revolver and emptied the cylinder into the back of Blood's head. He felt pretty good about himself, that is until a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and slammed into the concrete. The sadist grunted in pain as Blood leaned in to disembowel him. Before a single fang could touch his skin Smokey smiled. The beast reeled back as a bright yellow nova phased through the creature. The black furred beast stood on its hind legs, trying to escape the damaging aura, but could not fall back down as Brick had taken hold its two upper most tentacles.

"Who's in the mood for calamari?!" The berserker shouted as he yanked back on the tendrils. Blood's howls and whimpers became more urgent as blood began to seep from the base of the tentacles. One more good pull from the super human was all it took for the limbs to be severed messily. Blood fell back to four feet panting. Recovering, Blood whipped back around and snapped at Brick with its giant jaws only to be stopped by two giant hands. Brick grunted as he held kept the jaws from snapping around him. Brick could feel himself slipping as the teeth got progressively closer until Blood gave up and reeled back once more, his eye having been shot out.

"Bulls eye!" Ace cheered as he lined up his next shot and took out its other eye as well. Blood thrashed around blindly, flailing its remaining four tentacles around in fury. The next howl it took was its last as a stage launcher round was fired down its throat. The initial cannon ball like round destroyed its sternum before a cascade of explosive bullets fired from it, damaging its jugulars and brain. With one last gurgled howl Blood Curdled fell to the ground and dies. A metallic clank echoed though out the large area as a Jakobs shotgun slid away from the beast corpse. Smokey was the first to reach it; a satisfied grin spread across his face as he inspected the break action shotgun. It was a beautiful mixture a brazed metal and vintage looking wood, and with sixteen pellets per shot there was no way he would ever miss. The sadist let out a low whistle at the thought of blood shed to come.

"Loot hog," brick mumbled under his breath; not that it helped to conceal his voice. Meanwhile Violette, Maya, and Ace were looking for a way out. The young engineer had come across a stand with a screen fixed onto it. Looking up, she noticed a large metallic hatch right above her.

"Hey guys, I think I found an elevator," She called out to the rest of her team.

"Good eye, mate!" Ace cheered as he and the others loaded up on the hidden platform.

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, Violette Seraphim cannot responsible for any injury or death that may occur once the ride is over. Please enjoy," Violette said in the most monotone voice she could muster as she typed furiously on the screen. With a final synthetic beep the platform started to rise slowly as the hatch began to open. Smokey let out a heavy sigh as he leaned his weight on the guard rail. Violette noticed the bothered expression on her brother's face and moved to lean beside him.

"I uh… heard what you said about Church, do you wanna talk about it?" Smokey let out another heavy sigh as he ran a hand over his face.

"Look, I did something stupid, like really stupid. I tried to help but in the end I just let I just ended up hurting. Now I have to find a way to fix it," The platform raised through the hatch as the vault hunters were once again assaulted by the freezing air.

"You'll figure something out, Nate. Church doesn't seem like the kind of guy to hold grudges,"

"Nah, he isn't. Thanks, sis," A voice suddenly came over the echo.

"You made it through the Shriek nest? Hm, I'm impressed," A raspy male voice said dryly.

"Who is this?" Violette asked immediately.

"The name's Smashface and I need your help. My men have been holding these savages off for years, but our morale is breaking, our resources are fleeting, and there's no possible way we're going to survive the next attack,"

"Savages? You mean the town of mirror and shotters?" Violette asked.

"That's right,"

"But that means…You're in the Anshin building!" Ace chirped.

"Sharp man, looks like you're looking for the cache too. If you help us it's all yours,"

"How do we know we can trust you?" Maya chimed in.

"Because we will die without you," Smashface responded immediately.

"That doesn't make any sense, if you're willing to give us the cache so easily then why have you been fighting for so long to protect it?" Violette asked, her natural born wit kicking in.

"Sir the shotters are back!" A second voice cam over the frequency.

"Don't worry; it's just a recon squad. Those bastards are trying to make sure we're awake. Look I'll explain a little later, but for now just try and get to us. This waypoint will lead you right to the Anshin facility. Chrome?"

"Right here," A pleasantly jovial voice answered.

"Follow our friends here and make sure they don't die too quickly,"

"Roger," The man answered, before the air went dead. A moment of silence let the vault hunters notice the whistling winds until a new waypoint appeared on their maps.

"Well, what are yall waiting for? We've got a job to do," Brick bellowed as he trudged through the snow once again as his teammates followed in silence.

(I'm sorry, but on top of being on vacation up in Rehoboth for four days, I also got Doom and Battleborn a few days before.)


	41. Shit happens, alot of shit

Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands

(A/N: Happy anniversary to anyone who's reading this! You guys are probably getting the short end of the stick here. This story would be much better to read after it's already been completed so you could just marathon the chapters. A year or so after you finished reading this come back and re-read you'll see what I mean. Here we go!)

 **Chapter 41: Shit happens… A Lot of Shit**

Lilith staggered backwards with a new split in her lip after taking the first punch from her pacifistic opponent. Church would have liked nothing more than to leave the arena and collect his thoughts, but of course he couldn't. That back out fee was far too expensive for him to pay say it was either kill a maximum of four friends with his bare hands or take on an entire arena of Torgue personnel. Wanting to end this quickly, Church thrust his right one hander at Lilith. The seasoned Siren foresaw this and jumped in the air, landing on the blade and trapping it under her foot. A phase-energy infused punch forced Church to let go of his sword as he staggered backwards like Lilith had just a little bit ago. Lilth picked up the sword and put up her guard, ready for Church's next attack. Though using a sword was a better option than her bare fist Church could clearly see that she had no idea what she was doing with it. The swordsman let loose with a barrage of swipes that came and went far faster than Lilith could block. The siren held up her borrowed weapon blocking the slashes by pure chance and fear as she constantly lost ground. Finally she threw the sword up, knocking Church's one hander back before thrusting for the kill. Church's skill became apparent in that moment as he turned to left avoiding the blade and locked her arm in an arm bar. He then slammed the pummel of his sword into her forehead forcing her to let go of the sword and fall back; which Church allowed until he grabbed her again by the wrist. His skin took on the familiar red aura as her hand was severed at the joint. Lilith let out a scream like she never had before as she stumbled back and fell to her knees, clutching her new stub. Meanwhile Church was taking some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. "Everything's cool, you're fine, Lilith is going to be fine, your fight with saw belt is over, and it's been over for years. Just finish this and be done with it," Church talked himself off the adrenaline. While he was busy with that Lilith had pulled out a chunk of Eridium and became engulfed in a fiery aura.

"Torgue, doesn't that count as a performance enhancing drug?" Moxxi asked from the curator booth.

"WELL I DON'T REMEMBER ISSUING A DRUG TEST, I GEUSS WE'LL JUST HAVE TO SIT THROUGH A MORE AWESOME FIGHT! SORRY FOLKS!" Torgue responded in the way only he could. Lilith got back to her feet as the wound on her arm and forehead seared shut.

"Hey, no hard feeling right?" Lilith asked as she stood tall once again.

"R-right," Church responded now visibly sweating. He didn't want to give in, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold out. The siren swung her arm, letting out a whip of fire. Church ducked down and grabbed his sword, before rolling out of the way.

"You've got skill, but I have way more experience and firepower," Lilith commented as she took to the air and released blasts of fire at the swordsman. Church gave no reply as he outran the fire. Letting his baser impulses kick in he sprinted to one of the tin structures in the arena as the red aura consumed his skin once more. With a leap he latched onto the tin building, his fingers digging into the metal like the sharpest blades you've ever seen. He climbed the building like a wild animal; Lilith following him with her projectile fire never quite being able to hit him. Finally he reached the top and launched himself right into Lilith, a move she didn't expect. The siren had no time to think or react as she plummeted to the ground at 9.8 meters per second. She hit the ground with a thud and a pained expression, Church's weight having added on to her own. The pacifist raised his swords for the final strike, but Lilith shot out a stream of particularly powerful fire. At that moment most people would have assumed that Lilith had won, but those people would be very surprised by the pair of swords that came out of the fire and impaled her through the chest. Church looked his opponent square in the eye as she faded away into blue light. Church didn't hear the crowd cheering and booing, he didn't hear Torgue's shouting. Right now all he heard was his heart pounding in his ears and his own voice in his head.

"You did well; you got the job done without freaking out. No hallucinations, no panic attacks, just a fight between friends,"

Back in Alagra a sadist, an engineer, a gladiator, a marksman, and a berserker trudged through the snow. Athena had tuned in to the frequency that Chrome had answered from.

"So uh, chrome was it? Do you mind giving us a bit of a run down?"

"Sure, so to answer your question from earlier. We don't care who gets their hands on the cache so long as it ain't one of them low life bandits or S&S. Hell thank god you guys came so we could cut out the middle man. This way we can unload the arsenal right into every one of the bastard's faces," Chrome replied.

"Who are you guys exactly?" Violette queried.

"We call ourselves The Few. We're a small group of mercenaries now dedicated to shortening the war on Pandora and controlling the bandit population here in Alagra. Speaking of which, you're actually coming up on Mirror now. You're going to have to fight your through to get to the facility. I'm sure it'll be no problem for you, but just in case I've already set up shop here. Happy shooting, fellas," With that the five vault hunters looked up at the ruined city before them. Lucky for them they were far enough away that the patrols didn't see them.

"What did Chrome mean when he said he had "set up shop"?" Smokey asked.

"More than likely he's a sniper. So here's the plan. Brick since you wouldn't follow a plan if I paid you, you'll charge in and make a distraction at the city's entrance sound good?" Athena started.

"I can live with that," Brick answered as he crossed his arms.

"The rest of us will go around to side and flank the forces they send after him," she looked back to Brick. "Wait until I give the signal to attack alright?" Brick gave affirm nod. With that Athena and her colleagues headed out for the flank. Once there they received a call from Chrome.

"You uh gonna do something?" He asked having expected the shooting to start much sooner.

"Real soon, mate," Ace answered.

"Right, about, now," Violette cued as Athena sent the signal to Brick. The berserker was brought away from his thoughts by the signal.

"Time to mix things up," He said to himself as he charged into the city's main entrance. As he got closer more and more bandits began to notice something moving in the distance. However they couldn't make out what it was through the blizzard. They figured that because of how fast it was moving that it must've been a lone shriek, but they wouldn't find out how wrong they were until it was far too late. The realization came in the form of a huge blood spatter on the snow as Brick's first victim was now short a few teeth…and bones…and cartilage, and pretty much anything else that made up the human face. It was then that the shooting started. The sound of gunshots drew larger numbers of bandits out of their quarters. Brick fought them off for a few moments longer, crushing flesh and bone with his hammer. After the wave of bandits ran past the others that left the safety of their hiding spots and picked the bandits off from behind. The ones in front didn't even know the trained killers were there. When Brick finally couldn't take any more bullets he holstered his weapon and charged through like a freight train to his teammates, taking out multiple bandits in the process. Athena smirked as she threw three fire bee grenades into the crowd making their numbers dwindle already. Violette noticed that as the group of bandits they were taking fire from got smaller her robots ran and flew behind them. This caused the young engineer to turn around and see the even larger set of bandits already behind them. A suicide psycho with a cooked grenade ready to blow him and Athena to bits raised his fist in the air.

"Athena Look out!" Ace cried out, but it was too late. Just before the grenade blew up a sniper shot came out of now where, blowing the psycho's hand off at the wrist and knocking the grenade behind him. Athena turned around just as the psycho was blow up and forced against her shield as if it were a brick wall. Violette followed the vapor trail to the top of a high rise where Chrome was undoubtedly working his magic.

"Damn good shot ain't ya', Chrome?" Ace asked as he fired into the crowd with his shock Hyperion SMG.

"I fancy myself one, yeah," he answered.

Smokey charged into the bandits of Mirror with an unmodified grenade in both hands. Just before these grenades exploded the sadist shoved them into two bandit's faces, killing them and damaging a few others. The grenades had brought his shield down to its breaking point. This meant little to Smokey as he activated the laughs of agony, striking the remaining bandits with the strength of second sets of grenades. Smokey noticed that as he killed people with his action skill his shield immediately restored by %50. He had little time to contemplate this as he continued to kill his enemies with his cat o' nine tails. Between the four vault hunters and the sniper picking off bandits one by one, it wasn't long before the remaining ten or so attempted to retreat. The others tried to shoot them down, but failed as they were soon out of sight. A raspy voice came over the speaker system in the town.

"So you couldn't hold the off huh? I don't blame you, no one could. Don't worry about them, just stay out of sight, unless you think you have a chance of course. If they come for me us then they come for us, but until then let's not give them anymore of a reason to wipe us out,"

"Huh a bandit clan head with some brains. Never saw one of those before, Athena commented as she walked on.

"This could be a trap," Violette replied.

"I've gotta agree with the brunet there," Chrome started. "The mayor of mirror is actually a pretty decent leader, especially when you compare him to all the other brainless schmucks who run things around here. I wouldn't doubt that this was a trick to lure you into a false sense of security, but at the same time he might know that you have to kill them all to secure the cache," The jolly sniper explained.

"Then shouldn't you change position?" Smokey asked as he and the others walked through the eerily silent bandit camp.

"Nah, Theses bandits don't seem to use this high rise for anything, and I can see the whole town from up here. Good luck fellas," It wasn't a moment after Chrome finished his call before a throwing knife lodged itself in Brick's right arm.

"Ow," The behemoth said as if he had just gotten stung by a bee, as he pulled it out to examine the blade. This blade was expertly made with a double edged blade, thin long holes cut out of the steel, and serrates at the base of the blade. The others turned to look at the blade, and proceeded to look around warily.

"Damn, I missed," A soft, but deep voice complained from out of sight. A metal canister rolled to Athena's feet before spewing smoke at an alarming rate. It wasn't two seconds before the vault hunter were robbed of their vision and began to choke on the smoke. Violette let out screams as she suddenly felt several cuts open in various places on her body; Brick flinched as he felt another two knives forcefully penetrate his back, and Athena felt her sword get lifted off he person. Before any of them knew it the smoke had cleared and a lithe figure stood before them. This man stood at around five and a half feet tall, had matching black fabric black jacket and pants, and a gas mask with a top half resembling a skull. The man had an array of weapons strapped to his arms and legs, two pistols on his hip, and a black white spray painted Jakobs sniper rifle on his back. The man remained silent as he tossed Athena's sword behind him. Brick grunted as he pulled the knives out of his back.

"I'm not gonna lie, I kinda like this guy," Brick commented as he went in for a punch. The man dodged effortlessly. Without pause he grabbed onto Brick's arm, swung up, and sent his knee into the brawler's eye. Brick reeled back, covering his eye as he doubled over instinctively. The man sprung off of Brick's back as he drew his twin party popper pistols. The twenty two damaging, yet short ranged bullets rained down on the three vault hunters as the man flew over them. The party popper projectiles immediately cut into their health, except for Athena who was able to put up her shield in time. The man tucked and rolled as he landed. Before the man had a chance to move, Athena threw her shield at him, the following explosion knocking him off his feet. A sniper shot tagged him in the back, before he could collect himself. The explosion from Athena's shield had cut through his shield, so the Vladof incendiary round dug deep into his back. Without hesitation the man dropped a second smoke grenade, shrouding himself in the thick black smoke. Ace looked through his scope from the snipers nest he made for himself on top of a one story building, but found neither hide nor hair of him through the smoke screen. Before the Dahl sniper knew what hit him, a white soled sneaker kicked him in the back, and off the building into the lingering smoke. To add onto the attack he threw a bouncing Bonny into the confusion. By the time the smoke cleared and the grenade had dealt its final bit of damage everyone had been beaten to within an inch of their lives. Just as the man had drawn his Jakobs sniper rifle, ready to finish off these assailants a Vladof shock round pierced directly through the Anshin shield on his belt. The resulting explosion knocked him off the rooftop. Smokey took this chance to go on the offensive as he tackled the man, and wrapped his bull whip around his throat. The man tried to elbow Smokey in the stomach, hoping that he would've let go like almost anyone else, but the sadist was no stranger to this pain and wasn't even fazed. He turned the man to the others to open him up for attacks.

Surprisingly Violette was the first to strike. She lunged at the man with a two foot adjustable wrench, and swung it right into his ribs. The man threw his head back in pain as he let out a scream. Quickly recovering he put his foot behind Smokey's, tripping him. He then threw his captor over his shoulder into Violette, knocking them both over. He reacted quickly as Athena started charging at him with her Torgue shotgun. Reaching into his arm sheaths he drew and threw two knives into the gladiator's feet. This distracted Athena long enough to keep her from noticing the Jakobs in rifle in his hands, which he used to shoot her wrist causing her to drop her gun. He then turned his aim to her head and fired, breaking her shield the rest of the way. He fired continually, depleting her health until it reached ten percent, and one more shot is all it would take. But as he fired the last shot a wall of living meat blocked the bullet. Brick ignore the gunshot and charged like a rhino at the man. Normally someone like Brick wouldn't be able to touch the man in a fight, but as he jumped to dodge two sets of hands grabbed his ankles and ripped him back down to the ground. He looked down at Violette and Smokey holding him down for a split second before an unparalleled forced crashed into him. After he stopped sliding on the snow, he found that his limbs were becoming increasingly heavy and his vison was starting to blur. Just as all four vault hunters gathered around to look down at him his vison faded to black.

Mordecai was unsure of this next fight. He had put hundreds of robots out of commission in his time. Gun loaders, War loaders, badass loaders, even super badass loaders, but who knew what kind of ticks could be hidden in the particular shell. He looked at the bright yellow robot that had played just as big a part in saving the Galaxy as he or any of his other colleagues had. He must have had something up his sleeve. Tired of waiting, the sniper pulled out his sword and rapidly started gaining ground on the robot. Loader wasted no time in taking evasive action, rolling and moving, doing just about anything to dodge Mordecai's experienced slashes, but couldn't move well enough to prevent Mordecai from planting the sword firmly into the space between the armor on the chest and neck. It wasn't long after that that Loader swung around and delivered a hydraulic uppercut to the aging drunk. Mordecai was sent flying into the air and hit the ground hard. He laughed through the pain as he sat up.

"You might want to take a closer look at that sword there, Loader," he said before spitting out a tooth. The robot turned to look at the sword sticking out of his neck to see the word Tediore written on the handle.

"Shit!" Loader said out loud as the sword exploded and rematerialized in Mordecai's hands. Loader fell to his knees, letting out sparks, and throwing sparks. Before Loader got back on his feet he activated his LRAD. Mordecai covered his ears and screwed his eyes shut as the high pitched, damaging sound waves washed over him. The LRAD, didn't last very long though, the damage done by the explosion having broken the internal LRAD system. Loader looked down as a second sword lodged itself in the ground beneath him. The resulting explosion sent the robot straight up and down in the same place, now missing a set of legs. Mordecai strolled over to the dismembered robot, smirking in spite of the line of blood dripping down his chin.

With a stabbing motion he brought his sword down, until it was stopped by Loader's grip. The robot pulled Mordecai by his sword and punched him in his smug face, sending him in the same arc as the first lunch had. Loader now took the discarded Tediore blade by the handle and turned it to the sky to let his targeting system take over. He threw the sword high into the sky. The audience lost the blade in the sky until it was found once more when it fell and impaled Mordecai through the left leg. The sniper let out a scream before an explosion shrouded his body in dust and smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal a bloodied and broken Mordecai. He no longer had portions of either leg, blood ran out of every orifice in his body, his goggles were shattered and still he crawled towards his opponent.

"When I got you in my sights, there ain't anything that can stop me," Mordecai mumble to himself as he suffered through possibly the worst pain him had ever felt in his life. Loader began to crawl towards Mordicai as well, his movements being much more deliberate and effective than his human counterparts. Once Mordecai was within range he put his hand on the Tediore blade on his back. This had already been accounted for by the robot, and as such he sent his fist at the sniper's face. However this had also been accounted for by Mordecai as he rolled out of the way, took a knife off his belt, and slammed it into Loader's red eye. The robot's limbs seemed to stiffen for a moment before going limp, and a blue light enveloped him. Mordecai rolled onto his back, breathing heavily.

"What did I tell you, you robot bastard," he said between gasps before passing out from blood loss, and being consumed by the same blue light as his robotic opponent had.

"Wow, that fight was just sad, and kinda pathetic," Torgue said softly sounding a bit crest fallen.

"Torgue are you alright?" Moxxi asked, shocked that her companion wasn't shouting. She wasn't even sure that was possible.

"I'M FINE, WHY DO YOU ASK?!" Moxxi let out a heavy sight through her nose.

"No reason, never mind," She replied sounding rather disappointed.

The man awoke slowly and painfully, fully aware of where he had taken the blows during his fight with the five warriors. He couldn't see anything yet, having been immediately blinded by the light. He tried to move, but found that he couldn't. The distinct feeling of ropes made itself known all over his body. He also noticed that his gas mask was gone as he felt the cold draft on his face. As he finally adjusted to the light, he saw the five vault hunters gathered around him. He was in what looked to be a concrete basement, complete with varying pipes, non-functioning water heater, and single unshaded lightbulb that was yellow from layer upon layer of dirt.

"Why didn't you kill me?" The man asked in his deep raspy voice.

"Because we figured you would have some information that could help us in this little endeavor," Athena answered.

"What made you think I would tell you anything?" He asked defiantly.

"Because mercenaries don't die for their clients," Smokey said with some venom as he tossed the man's echo on the floor. "Isn't that right Looker?"

"Do you actually know my name now or are you making fun of me?" By this question Looker was acknowledging his deeply scarred face. Jagged scars curved and slashed all over his face. There were parts were his lips had bits taken out of them revealing his teeth, a chuck taken out of his left ear, and eyes that were a pale shade of purple indicating color blindness.

"Both," The sadist replied nonchalantly.

"Fair enough," the deadly assassin admitted.

"Start talking!" Brick shouted as he pointed his bad it shotgun at the mercenary. "I don't have the best patience,"

"Alright you won fair and square, Dominik the mayor of mirror, only ordered his men to stay away from you guys so that you wouldn't question where they were. Most of Dominik's men are on their way to the Anshin facility right now,"

"Fuck, what is someone that smart doing on Pandora? I haven't had to use my training since that fight with Zarpedon!" Athena yelled as she punched the water heater in the corner.

"That's not all. The only reason Dom sent his men there is because the shoter's started moving in on it this morning. Once they meet in the middle it will be an all-out war, and quite honestly The Few will probably end up getting crushed in between," Looker continued.

"Oh rack off of course they fucking will!" Ace bursted, as he stormed a few feet away to mumble to himself angrily.

"Anything else you got for us?" Violette asked warmly, trying to show Looker a bit of gratitude for cooperating.

"One more thing, I assume that you and your sanctuary friends want all these assholes dead, so you're probably going to go after Dom at some point. Be careful with Dom's bodyguard. He could rip me in half if he wanted to,"

"Got it," Violette answered,

"Just one more question," Athena started as she leaned in. "Any reason that you can't work for us?" She asked.

"Hehe I may be a man who does nothing but kill people for a higher than average price, but I have some pride. And I'm not going to take a job from the people who I wasted most of my ammo on and broke a few of my ribs," Looker said with venom.

"That was a pretty hasty decision, don't worry we'll talk more about this later," she said as put her Jakobs pistol against his head and pulled the trigger. No one payed this any mind as Looker's body was immediately swallowed by a blue light and dematerialized. Ace then turned on his echo.

"Commander Lyme, come in have you received the package? Over."

"Roger that, he's here, but he sure as hell ain't happy about it. Over,"

"Hope you got a lot of men with you, this guy almost took all five of us out. Over,"

"Copy that, over and out," Commander Lyme signed off. With that the vault hunters started to make their way out of the basement of the high rise that Chrome had been using.

"Alright, new plan," Chrome started as he saw the vault hunters make their way out of his sniper's nest. "You guys are going to go to town hall, and kill the mayor and his bodyguard. From there, there should be an access point into the underground monorail network where you'll meet with my man Hank. Hank knows those tunnels like the back of his hand. If you're lucky you'll get to the facility before the shooting even starts. Good luck fellas, I'll be following you through the town and let you know if I see anything suspicious," With that the vault hunters made their way to the town hall. Ace walked at a brisker pace to catch up with Athena.

"So Athena, what do you make of all this?" he asked.

"Honestly I'm not sure. It's been a long time since I've come across someone of tactful as Dominic. A while back there was this bandit queen name Valarie. She had it in for me and my friends, and damn if she didn't go to the end of the planet to fuck our day. She was always one step ahead it seemed. W can only hope that he doesn't turn out to be a s big a threat as she was,"

"Oh please, you're a trained assassin, arguably Atlas' best," Ace replied.

"Not that time on Pandora would teach you this, but being a soldier isn't just about being good at killing. A sharp mind is the most dangerous weapon,"

"Amen to that," Violette chimed in.

"You may have a sharp mind, but you traded your common sense for it," Smokey joked with his sister. Violette chuckled before replying.

"You really haven't improved your insulting skills since your senior year have you?" Violette retorted.

"You kidding, I was at my peak back then," He responded, still laughing. As they came up on what must have been the only intact building in the city Dom started to speak to the team via the speaker system.

"So I take it you were coming for me all along then? I'm not surprised; I suppose that means that Looker is out of the picture too huh? Damn and he was really good at what he did too," the vault hunters walked up to the front of town hall. Dom stepped out onto the balcony, making him known. "Good afternoon, I guess we're going to try to kill each other now. Natural enemies and all that. I warn you though I won't go down easily. Gentlemen, would you kindly assist me?" Around ten bandits kicked out the door of the hall as Dom walked back inside and out of sight. Unfortunately for the vault hunters five of these bandits were task masters and three of them were bruisers.

"Does it never end?!" Violette shouted as she sent out her robots. While one of the bruisers turned to shoot his shot gun at Blue, Violette took advantage of the slightly lower gravity on Pandora to jump up and slam her wrench into the bruiser's head. He let out a scream of pain as he whipped around, swinging the barrel of his Jakobs at her, and completely missing. Ducking down, Violette pulled the trigger on Bane. Being point blank every round found a place somewhere in the bruiser, reducing him to ashes. Brick rushed at a task master, and slammed against his shied in a tackle. He was forced to let go of his gun to stand a chance against the berserker's strength, and put both hands on his shield. The two bulking men pushed against one another with all of their might, neither one giving up any ground. This seemed like it could've gone on forever until Athena threw a Tediore grenade at the task master's feet. Brick saw this and smiled, slamming the shield into the ground as the grenade went off. Brick was completely shielded while the taskmaster took the full hit, bringing him to his knees. The berserker then picked up the shield and slammed it down on the taskmaster's head, killing him instantly.

"Quick thinking, Slab!" Brick yelled to Athena with appreciation as he wound back and sent a haymaker into a Bruiser's face, sending him into just the right position for Ace to jump on his back. The bruiser writhed around, trying to get the sniper off of his back. Reacting quickly, Ace plunged his kukri knife into the Bruiser's back before emptying his Vladof pistol right into the back of his head. The bandit fell to the ground letting his shotgun sink into the snow. Pulled his knife out the bandit as he looked up and noticed that a taskmaster was coming right for him; Ace was feeling something new, after all this fighting, he was getting sick of these bandits, he was getting angry. This anger however filed him with a type of excitement. He effortlessly thought of new ways to kill these people faster, these thoughts empowered him. This feeling was the spirit of Pandora. Quickly he grabbed the shotgun out of the snow and dashed to the side to avoid the blast from the taskmaster. He then charged at him and jumped up, landing his boot firmly on the steel shield, and leaping off from there. While in the air he fired the shotgun at the taskmaster's elbow, the pellets practically sawing his arm off at the joint. The taskmaster dropped his shield with an extended howl of pain, before Smokey wrapped his whip around his neck from behind.

"Sick move, Ace!" Smokey congratulated as he pulled back on his whip, making the taskmaster lean back as he tried to resist. A few shots to the back of the head with his revolver disabled his shield, letting Athena come and slash along his stomach with her xiphos. Smokey unraveled his whip and let the bleeding bandit fall to the ground, turning the white snow crimson. Before Smokey could warn her, Athena was wrapped in a bear hug by the last Bruiser, and had a sawn off shotgun held against her head. This shotgun was cut back so far that it could be held like a pistol. Smokey had his Cat o' nine tails pointed at the ground. This made the Bruiser think that Smokey was ready to negotiate.

"Look, buddy I know I don't stand any chance against all of you, and I've seen a lot of friends die today. I just want to leave and be done with this," The bruiser sounded very solemn, and Smokey almost considered letting him leave…almost.

"Nah," He said as he pulled the trigger, and all nine beams pierced the bruiser's legs, setting him on fire. The sadist prepared to deal another blow as the bandit scrambled around in pain, but was football tackled by a taskmaster, and pinned to a wall, leaving Athena to fend for herself. Throwing her head back, she hit him right in the nose, and fell to the ground as he let her go. She instantly activated her shield and plunged the spinning blades into Bruiser's neck. Smokey struggled with the taskmaster as he tried to pry the gloved hands from around his neck. Seeing no other option He kicked his heel against the wall, revealing his hidden knife, and kicking the taskmaster in the groin with it. This made him let go of the sadist and double over in pain. Smokey was about to make a mover for his revolver before the robotic big cat mauled him with its digistruct claws. As much as Smokey enjoyed watching the robotic cat slowly kill the bandit, he figured he should keep up with the fight. Only two task masters remained; the two that had midgets strapped to their shields.

"If you kill them we'll let you go," Said the men as they broke the chains and turned the midgets loose on the vault hunters. The first midget came at Violette. The young engineer raised her wrench in preparation, but the short man rolled under the swing and jumped on her back. She reached and stretched for the midget, but couldn't touch him, as he started to stab her with a shiv. She screamed out in pain, before her brother came up and haymkaered the back of his head. Now dizzy the midget came off easily and immediately ate two bullets on the ground. One from Smokey's revolver an one from Violette's Morningstar, killing him instantly. The second Midget didn't last nearly as long, as he was picked up by Brick and chucked full strength at the taskmaster he came from. The midget splattered across the shield and knocked the task master of his defenses, this left him open to gunfire from the vault hunters. As he was pelted by bullets, Brick came up to him and slugged him across the face, sending him in just the right position for Ace to shoot him in the critical spot between the Kevlar slabs covering his head. As the taskmaster fell over dead, three different grenades landed at the last taskmaster's feet, blowing him into oblivion. The Vault hunters leaned on their knees, and panted as they tried to recover from the strenuous fight. Again Dom came through the balcony door, but this time the snow on the ground shifted as what seemed to be a giant steel hatch split open.

"Well you made quick work of my second through ninth best men, but I wasn't expecting much else than for them to run down some of your ammo," Dom said coyly.

"Fuck!" Athena cursed. Her ammo was down to half of her original stock and she didn't imagine anyone, but brick would be doing much better. A large structure started to rise out of the open hatch. As more of the structure became visible it was apparent that it was a robot, about the size of Saturn.  
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that this was his bodyguard!" Violette yelled out with venom. They had thought they would be fighting bandits, so they stocked up on fire weapons. They weren't prepared for a fight with a robot.

"Why the hell didn't Looker tell us about that?!" Brick yelled with anger.

"Because we kicked his ass, and shot him in the head," Ace said jokingly in spite of the situation at hand.

"You put up a nice fight, dear vault hunters, but I must bid you-"One of Chrome's sniper shots hit the banister next to Dom's hand. "SWEET JESUS!" He yelled as he lost his balance and fell into the open cock pit.

"Damn it, Chrome You had one job!" Athena shouted into the echo.

"I'm so far away!" the sniper snapped back.

"Alright I have to admit that I've run out of patience with you. I think it's time to finally finish this," The automatic shoulder turrets sprung to life and began to shoot shock rounds at the vault hunters. The five fighters rolled out of the way and tried to disable the turrets at the same time, but in all the chaos only around a third of the shots fired actually hit. By now the five vault hunters were fairly spread out and Dom had to decide which one to go after. His sights randomly landed on Smokey as the others continued to empty their mags into him.

"Follow my lead slabs I've got a plan!" brick shouted over the gunfire.

"I'm sorry did I hear that right? You have a plan?" Ace asked, still the same jokester.

"Yep, you draw his attention, while I go over here!" Brick said as he jogged to the side of the building. This caught Dom's attention as the huge robot turned to focus its wrist mounted machine guns on the berserker. This was stopped quickly though by a sniper shot from chrome that hit the right shoulder mounted cannon down the barrel. Dom turned his attention back to the vault hunters in front of him as the left shoulder turret met the same fate. While Dom had turned for a second, Violette switched the elemental capacitor in Bane to corrosive. As soon as Dom showed the whites of his eyes, he and his gigantic robot form was filled with an absolute barrage of acidic bullets, this caused Dom to writhe as he fired his machine guns, not particularly aiming. Violette's shields dropped to about 25% before she ran out of smg ammo and was forced to take out her stage launcher. While Athena drew attention with her Sinew shotgun and Smokey with his Prometheus; Violette got in position and shot her stage launcher twice into the wall behind Dom. The close range allowed the long ranged weapon to imbed the rounds into the thick walls. A second later the rounds exploded releasing a cascade of ricocheting bullets into Dom's back. Dom let out a slightly warped yell as the speakers started to spark along with the rest the rest of the robot. The robotic form started to vibrate and move jerkily, as it continued to fire at the vault hunters. Unfortunately for the vault hunters they were completely out of ammo. Every last bullet and shell had been fired. Just as Athena screamed and went into fight for your life mode, Brick made his appearance.

"Hey, Tall, dark, and metal! You wouldn't believe what my slabs found for me!" Brick said as he readied the badaboom rocket launcher. Dom turned to the yelling to take six rockets to the face. Brick jumped off the building, shooting Dom as he fell with twelve more rockets. After the smoke cleared and the other vault hunters helped Athena up Dom's robot folded its legs in on itself, bringing the cockpit close to the ground and released the hatch. Dom panted heavily as he limped out of the robot. His fine suit had been ruined and his mustache was singed. Before the mayor of Mirror could do anything, Athena grabbed him by the collar and nailed him in the stomach with her best shot. Without pause she then picked him up and slammed against his own destroyed robot.

"Any last words, psychopathic son of bitch?" Athena grunted as she looked Dom dead in the eye. The rest of the vault hunters gathered around except for Ace who picked up a mysterious looking sniper rifle that seemed to have fallen off the robot after its defeat.

"I can help you," Dominik said through the pain. Athena gave him a firm punch on the chin.

"What are you talking about?" She said as she held her pistol against his head.

"First off that gun is empty; secondly I can help you over power the shotters. Dragshot may not be half as smart as me, but there are almost as many of them. You won't be able to take them and my men on" Dom said with a smile on his face. Smokey walked up with a smile on his face.

"Bullshit! We've been fighting these assholes for years because of the armory, there's no way he's just going to give it up. The second you turn your back to him, he'll put a knife in it," Chrome chimed in.

"Makes sense," The sadist commented.

"Look You can choose to believe whatever you want. The simple fact is that if you trust you'll live and if you kill me you'll die," Dom said with the type of conviction that only a man with nothing to lose could. A bullet then lodged itself into Dom's skull.

"Well that solves that then," Chrome said as he reloaded.

"Oh so now you hit him," Smokey said with smarm.

"Yeah, whatever," He replied.

(A/N: Happy anniversary! I was going to include another tournament fight, but it seems that I've run out of time so there's not really much else I can do.)


End file.
